Purchasers' core priorities

From responses to all questions about their purchase (combining responses to features of homes, new-build considerations, parking and nearby amenities) it is possible to identify what is most important to today’s homebuyers. In order, these are:

1. Minimum maintenance

2. Off-street parking

3. Location

4. New home warranty

5. Size and design of living space

6. Quality of the neighbourhood

7. Energy efficiency

As shown in Figure 12, buyers in the different market densities are remarkably consistent in the choice of these priorities and the order in which they are ranked. Additional analysis was carried out on data from some of the geographical regions (South West, North West, Scotland and London) included in the survey. Except for London, the seven priorities listed above were again the top priorities, indicating their high importance to buyers across the regions. These appear to represent a set of core priorities that can usefully inform the direction of general marketing activities.

^{Source: Savills Research & NHBC Foundation}

Significantly, no amenity categories score high enough to be included in the top seven when the sample is analysed by density or purchaser type (page 'Priorities of different purchaser types' below). The importance of neighbourhood quality to buyers has been recognised in other studies [see 3 and 4]. Energy efficiency appears to be steadily moving up the priority list for homebuyers, perhaps because it has a growing association with comfort and low bills. Also, there is some evidence that priorities are changing over time, with for example, safety and security no longer registering so highly [5].

For London, though noted earlier to be under-represented in the sample, purchasers put the highest value on a local transport connection (train, tube and/or tram) and did not prioritise parking highly. They also included bedroom number and the ‘brand-new’ attribute of new-build within their top seven priorities.

There is a case for examining priorities in more detail within London in future work, as its special circumstances may not be being highlighted by the dense-urban data set captured in this study.

Priorities of different purchaser types

When we shift attention to what is most important to different purchaser types (Figure 13a), the priorities included in Figure 12 remain well-represented. There is, however, some clear differentiation between the patterns (choice and order) of priorities for the different buyer types.

First time buyers highlight Help to Buy as their highest priority

Upsizers select off-street parking as their highest priority and chose the size and design of living space as their second highest priority

Relocators also prioritise off-street parking and attach great importance to location and neighbourhood considerations

Downsizers select minimum maintenance as their highest priority, but notably energy efficiency is one of their top seven.

^{Source: Savills Research & NHBC Foundation}

These profiles of priority indicate opportunities for customised marketing to different home buyers. While cost and the property considerations will be foremost in the minds of buyers, local amenities also feature within their decision making. Figure 13b shows the amenities that are most important to different buyers, and highlight the following:

■ The importance of local NHS services to relocator and downsizer purchasers (who tend to have older age profiles)

■ The importance of bus routes/bus stops to all purchasers

■ The importance of transport links and local shopping to first-time buyers

■ The importance of local schools to upsizer households

■ The importance of a local convenience store

While this analysis contributes to our understanding of particular needs among different categories of purchaser, there is some predictability about these needs, particularly when the typical ages of the purchaser types are taken into consideration (see The survey – Figure 7 ).

^{Source: Savills Research & NHBC Foundation}

As well as identifying what was most important to different types of buyer, the feedback does allow us to draw some tentative conclusions on other features of homes that they gave responses to in the survey, including:

1. Downsizers were noted to attach slightly more importance to the quality of fixtures and fittings in bathrooms and kitchens, particularly in dense urban settings, where 51% rated the quality of the fitted kitchen and appliances as very important.

2. Perhaps predictably, garden size was more important to upsizers than other buyers.

3. Upsizers attached slightly more importance to open-plan design than other buyers.

4. Though not identified as a top priority by any buyers it was noted that modern technology (in this survey, for reference, participants were given the example of smart heating) was rated most highly by downsizers and first-time buyers. About 30% of downsizers in high-density urban locations rated it very important. In contrast, only 11% of relocators in the same setting rated modern technology as very important.

Additional observations on density

High-density urban markets

In the high-density urban market there is a higher proportion of apartments and a slightly stronger interest in the design of the home and the incorporation of modern technologies. Buyers of apartments were found to be much more interested in the security of their property – 44% of these buyers rated it as ‘very important’ compared to 30% of all respondents.

Buyers in high-density markets prioritise their amenities differently to the rest of the sample. They were more concerned with being close to a station (Figure 14) – 32% of the respondents rated it as ‘very important’ compared to 18% across the whole survey. This was particularly the case for younger buyers in these areas, with 47% of first-time buyers rating it as ‘very important’.

Overall, buyers in high-density urban markets would prefer to be within walking distance of amenities than buyers in other markets. This is particularly true for a station (43% of buyers here want to be within walking distance compared to 25% across the survey). Figure 10 illustrates that people in higher-density locations are the most likely to walk to key amenities, and use their cars less.

More buyers here commute to work using public transport, so it is unsurprising that car ownership in these areas is lower than elsewhere; 47% of buyers have two or more cars, compared to 60% in the suburbs.

With fewer cars and a higher dependency on public transport, both existing infrastructure and future infrastructure need to be taken into consideration for buyers in these markets.

^{Source: Savills Research & NHBC Foundation}

Medium-density urban markets

As indicated in Figure 11, buyers in the medium-density market are somewhat intermediate in their amenity priorities. The station is still very important to them, but now rated as being of similar importance to their main requirement for local NHS services and bus transport.

While buyers in these markets are, on average, younger than elsewhere, the priority for being close to local NHS services is mostly being driven by older buyers – only 17% of upsizers think this is ‘very important’ compared to 34% of downsizers in this market.

Suburban/ urban fringe markets

In this market, off-street parking was ranked particularly high with 61% of buyers rating it as ‘very important’. This is unsurprising as buyers in these markets have the highest level of car ownership (77% of families here own two or more cars) and are much more likely to drive to work.

Buyers in the suburbs are less interested in being close to a station – 14% thought it was very important. Likewise, these buyers were also less interested in being close to a town centre. Instead, it was access to local NHS services that was prioritised highest. But again this differed by buyer type and age. While only 22% of families in this market rated being close to NHS services as ‘very important’, 38% of downsizers thought it was.

Overall, buyers in suburban markets would prefer to drive to amenities more than buyers in other markets. This is particularly true for a station, town centre and supermarkets.

What they would want within walking distance broadly matches buyers in other areas – 60% of buyers here would prefer to walk to a local convenience shop, and 57% would prefer to walk to a park. However buyers in the suburban market are generally more likely to use their car to get to key amenities (see Survey results – Figure 10).

One surprising finding was the proportion of first-time buyers in these markets who thought being near a school or nursery was very important. This may reflect the wider age span of first-time buyers, many of whom will already have started families.

The first-time buyers were also more likely to want to walk to a school or nursery than upsizers – with a quarter of first-time buyers wanting to be able to walk to a nursery, compared to 18% of upsizers. For such buyers the provision of a local nursery on site would seem a very attractive idea.