What home buyers want from sustainability
What you’ll learn
- Research based insights into what home buyers want.
- Tools for working sustainability into the conversation.
Understanding what’s motivating your client's choices is an important entry point to any sale. It’s especially important for gathering context before you discuss sustainability.
This guide will help you explore your client’s priorities and consider how sustainability fits into their broader goals. Not only will you improve the likelihood that they include sustainability in their decision making process, but you’ll also help improve their satisfaction and quality of life post build.
Research on home buyer needs
We conducted research to discover what people want from a sustainable home and the conversations they have about it. Interviewing home buyers with budgets ranging from $400,000 to $850,000 and sales consultants like you, we learned about common misconceptions and opportunities.
While you may think sustainability is a tough sell, many Australians are receptive to including sustainable features in their homes when they understand how they’ll enrich their lives. Our research found that connecting sustainability to savings on running costs is the most effective communication strategy. Relate sustainability to your client’s financial needs and give them concrete examples of savings.
Sustainability has also become a bigger part of everyday conversations in Australia. The Australia Institute’s Climate of the Nation report found that concern about the impact of climate change is at a record high in Australia, with 80% of people thinking we are already experiencing problems caused by climate change. More than two-thirds of Australians (68%) support a national target for net zero emissions by 2050.
Australians recognise climate change as an issue; they just need help aligning it to actions they can take. That’s where your skills as a salesperson come into play. Pairing your expertise with this research can help translate your client’s climate concerns into decisions that benefit their health, comfort and the environment.
Key insights from research
Most home buyers reacted positively to climate and sustainability messages.
- Some home buyers are looking to limit their impact on the environment and reduce emissions.
- Some home buyers were more attracted to the secondary benefits of sustainability, like energy efficiency and cost-minimisation. “Where it goes hand in hand it's great. We want sustainability in our houses to save money, because we're using less energy.”
Home buyers' choices aren’t purely rational.
- People will act in what they believe is their best interest, but this isn’t a purely rational decision making process.
- Home buyers who have a level of concern for the environment will take it into their decision making process, if you help them connect it back to their personal wants, needs and concerns.
Home buyers' wants, needs and preferences can be influenced.
- They don’t know what their blindspots are and need your help to make a decision that’s best for them and their circumstances.
Conversations about motivations help home buyers prioritise.
- When you don’t have these conversations, people make decisions based on a loose collection of ideas, motivations and assumptions. These choices aren’t necessarily aligned with their underlying desires or best interests. “Even if it's a smaller space, it's a more comfortable space and it incorporates all the things that were in my priority list to begin with.”
How to start the conversation
It’s important to meet your client wherever they’re at in their circumstances. Be careful not to assume you know what they want and focus on learning about their personal situation. Start with more open ended and less personal questions until they’re comfortable.
| Your goal | What to say |
|---|---|
| Understand your client’s current context. | “Where are you up to in the process?”, or “What are the most important things to you in your new home?” |
| Learn the deeper reasons for your client’s motivations. | Ask ‘why’ questions: “Why is having a spare room particularly important for you?” |
| Develop trust and build rapport. | Reaffirm you’ve listened to them. Clarify something they’ve said by summarising it and repeating it back to them. “So, it sounds like natural light is really important to you, especially in the kitchen." |
How to build the conversation
Once you’ve learned about your client’s motivations you can build sustainability into the conversation. In the next few guides we’ve covered how to align the benefits of sustainability with a client’s goals to help them prioritise wins for themselves and the environment.
