Online home-hunters want to see energy ratings of properties for sale: survey

Auckland, 21 October, 2011 - Kiwi homebuyers who search for property online want to see energy and cost-of-living ratings on the homes they look at, says a real estate industry survey.

The Neilsen Real Estate Market Report, based on a survey sponsored by Realestate.co.nz is into its sixth year, and aims to understand how the ability to search for homes and investment properties online plays a major part in the way the real estate industry does business.

Questions about whether property hunters wanted to see information on energy ratings of properties accessed online were added to the survey for the first time this year. The Report found that more than two-thirds (67%) of respondents indicated that seeing energy and cost-of-living ratings would be ‘useful’ or ‘very useful’.

Alistair Helm, CEO of Realestate.co.nz, says that these findings are encouraging as they coincide with recent initiatives by the building and real estate industries to align their efforts in making information on environmental performance of homes available to buyers and sellers online.

“New Zealand now has a robust, government and industry backed home rating tool - Homestar, developed by the New Zealand Green Building Council and BRANZ - that aims to help Kiwis create healthier, more comfortable and energy-efficient living spaces,” says Mr Helm.

“We believe Homestar is only going to grow in terms of its recognition by consumers and the real estate industry as the defining measure for home environmental performance, which is why we are now including certified Homestar ratings on property listings on the Realestate.co.nz web site.

“This was partly in response to the increasing interest that homebuyers have been showing to agents in environmental performance factors, but also because we see that it will be a key differentiating factor for selling homes in the future,” says Mr Helm

Homestar (http://www.homestar.org.nz) launched in 2010 and since then more than 10,000 people have completed online assessments oftheir homes. The first Homestar Certified homes located nationally that achieved Homestar Certified ratings of between 4 and 7 stars were unveiled recently at an industry event in Auckland.

Director of Homestar, Krista Ferguson, says that consumer demand for the rating tool is growing substantially.

“We are delighted to now have homes with Homestar Certified ratings viewable on Realestate.co.nz, and to see consumer demand reported in this survey reinforces Homestar’s commitment in improving the health and quality of New Zealand homes. This represents an important step in the process towards improving the overall stock of New Zealand homes,” says Ms Ferguson.

“We encourage home occupiers to use the free online rating tool to get an indication of their homes’ provisional rating and a list of recommendations on any improvements they could make prior to requesting a Homestar Certified Rating.”

The Nielsen Real Estate Market Report is based on a site-intercept survey on New Zealand real estate web sites conducted during May to June 2011 with a sample size of 1,219 respondents and a margin of error of 2.86 percent.

Realestate.co.nz is the country’s most comprehensive property listing website profiling listings of licensed real estate agents with more than 107,000 real estate listings covering residential, commercial, business and farms for sale.

Further analysis of the findings of the Nielsen Real Estate Market Report, and the New Zealand property market in general can be found on www.unconditional.co.nz, the news and information website for New Zealand real estate.

About Realestate.co.nz
Realestate.co.nz is the official website of the New Zealand real estate industry, and provides the most comprehensive selection of licensed real estate listings across all categories of real estate. Realestate.co.nz lists more than 130,000 properties each year, representing more than 95 percent of all listings currently marketed by real estate professionals.

ENDS