I’m doing some research into the sale of retrofitted houses. I would like to hear from anyone who has recently put a house on the market that has sustainable technologies such as PV panels, solar hot water, etc. Did you find that prospective house-buyers were interested in your property because it had these technologies? Were people prepared to pay more for a house with value-for-money technologies? Or are home-buyers still looking for other features? I'm interested to know what feedback you are getting from buyers,both good and bad.
Does solar help sell a house?
(27 posts) (17 voices)-
May be solar power help you to sell your house because it is provide no tension for power cut I am also use solar power. It is good decision to attract buyers.
Posted Monday 2 Aug 2010 @ 4:54:07 am from IP # -
Buzzman
MemberThis report:
http://www.nathers.gov.au/about/publications/eer-house-price-act.html
...highlights the difference in price between houses in ACT that have either a 3 or 5-star rating under their Energy Efficiency Rating Scheme.Seems to work out to around $8000 per star difference.
Posted Monday 2 Aug 2010 @ 6:26:39 am from IP # -
I'm sorry I have no data for you S.
I have had several "appraisals" by a Real Estate agent in the 12 years since my highly efficient solar-passive house was built.
Basically it has not appreciated, while conventional houses have.Posted Monday 2 Aug 2010 @ 6:58:09 am from IP # -
dymonite69
MemberYou can work out the answer.
Look at houses for sale in the paper and on the internet.
Do you ever see spruiked "Wonderfully comfortable energy efficient house, Water saving fixtures etc."
There certainly is a passive-solar 'look' that goes around e.g. north facing clerestory or skillion roof. However, never have I seen an advert acknowledging this.
My parents are in the ACT and they are far ahead in terms of water/energy efficiency. The government actively supports or subsides audits and interventions. This may enhance the profile of the issues.
Posted Monday 2 Aug 2010 @ 7:05:37 am from IP # -
questionman
MemberCan I seek some helpful information from you all? With the Apricus hot water system (electric boosted), if I want TO TURN OFF THE ELECTRIC BOOSTER, should the unit's 'isolation' switch (located next to the SS tank) be turned UP or DOWN? I just need to be sure the booster is off, as I was not around during installation to ask this question. Many thanks to all
Posted Monday 2 Aug 2010 @ 9:10:15 am from IP # -
May be solar power help to sell your house because it is provide no tension for power cut I am also use solar power. It is good decision.
Posted Monday 2 Aug 2010 @ 12:42:55 pm from IP # -
SJ2571
MemberIt would surely add value to your home when advertising it for sale. People would be enticed by the thought of their electricity company paying them for their power. As to why more people don't advertise like that, I don't know. Losers? I would do it, and plan to when I eventually sell.
@dymonite69: I have actually seen houses spruiked as being "green" like that.
Posted Monday 2 Aug 2010 @ 1:25:58 pm from IP # -
cool at home
MemberMy sense from talking to Real Estate agents is that it will sell a property more to some but not to others, in the same way a pool will. Some will see the benefits of lower electricity bills, others will see 'something else that can go wrong', in a maintenance sense. So overall, it's probably not a great selling factor.
As solar panels are most often on homes without air con, this can be a real detraction for those who feel it is essential to control their air temp within a narrow range all year round - people have an amazing ability not to think ahead re the whacking great bills that come with this. Many of the people I've done home assessments for are spurred into action by receiving their first electricity bill in a highly air-conditioned new (to them) property.
Posted Tuesday 3 Aug 2010 @ 11:29:35 am from IP # -
How many house buyers would accept the following case?
"Because you will have lower power bills, the vendors are asking $10,000 extra to cover their investment"Posted Wednesday 4 Aug 2010 @ 2:00:17 am from IP # -
Frateco
Memberhere in Brisbane, from the horse's mouth (real estate guy), the answer was no. If it's there, bonus to the buyer. It is relevant to some buyers but generally, they won't pay more for it. The value is in the suburb, house style and fittings. She even went so far to say that if it wasn't air-conditioned, it was a negative!!!
Posted Wednesday 4 Aug 2010 @ 6:17:55 am from IP # -
CunningPlansDept
MemberI'm currently trying to sell my house which has PV, rain harvesting, retro-fit double glazing. It is billed as an eco-friendly house (I can send you the ad if interested).
Responses so far have been positive/accepting but people are still most focussed on the house layout and kitchen new-ness (or lack thereof). There have been people who've loved the house but its outside their budget even with the 'extra' cost of the PV.The kitchen is an interesting analogy to how buyers value key features. The lack of a $10K kitchen leads to them discounting their offer by $15K, but it seems that with a $10K kitchen they're likely to only add $5K value.
For me, I'd been heading towards getting PV on before the decision/need to sell arose. I made the decision to spend the $2.5K (or $5K if you include re-painting the roof prior to installation) as a feature to cap off the eco-features of the house. I also looked at it somewhat philanthropically, that if it didn't make the difference to a sale, then at least it was one more installed system.
Catopsilia - Unfortunately a minority, those who can do the maths that it's in their favour as a 2yr payback, then 'free' money. This is the same for the new houses being built which have in-built high running costs. It seems that most people aren't that far off the mental transition that happens after the age of ~7 when you work out that if someone offers you one piece of chocolate now or 10 pieces of chocolate in 5 mins, you're better off waiting 5 mins. (That's an actual psych study)
Posted Thursday 5 Aug 2010 @ 10:48:40 am from IP # -
dymonite69
MemberNow you know why all the "eco-houses" in Sanctuary Magazine are so glamourous. Fab granite top - check High ceilings - check lots of glass- check large format Italian tiles - check, ohh, and its got a few panels and a rainwater tank - check. I can now feel good about myself.
Posted Thursday 5 Aug 2010 @ 11:10:44 am from IP # -
Buzzman
MemberAnything "non-conventional" creates "question marks" in the minds of "normal" potential purchasers. A pool costs, everyone knows that, but do solar panels need more maintenacne than an OP HWS? Well, yes, but not much more. At the moment not much is known about how houses "perform", other than the hard to read and difficult to interpret energy bills, even when they are available.
For example, the owner of the underground house featured on last night's Grand Designs (ABC1 6.05pm) had a data logger logging the internal temperature of the home in different spots and, five years after the original build (and feature on GD) he was able to show presenter Kevin McCloud graphs of average temperatures showing worst of 16 deg C and best of 25 deg C over 5 years. Without any heating system at all.
This was in the UK where a gas-fired boiler with heat exchange systems and ducted heating is considered "normal".
The underground house had NO heater, OR air-conditioner - natural ventilation only.
Here in Oz, many people who have had solar PV installed have added data-logging capability via a software program and cable to their PC, and have been logging daily insolation and electricity production - mainly, I suspect, to have a back-up of data to argue with the retailer if they aren't credited with the correct amount on their bill - but at the very least they will have, at sale time, data files they can demonstrate to a potential new owner as to what the PV is producing.
So a bit more data than just the electric bills.
One thing I have noticed is that very few potential purchasers ever ask to see ACTUAL bills from the current owner.
I suspect that this will change, slowly, once people begin to realise that such data is useful when comparing apples with cheese, or oranges with chalk....
But it will take time and possibly the Residential Mandatory Disclosure implementation before this begins to become an issue for home buyers, especially "normal" home buyers.
Posted Friday 6 Aug 2010 @ 2:49:34 am from IP # -
So, you're an optimist, Buzzman!
What about all those brand-new charcoal-grey roofs? Are they just chosen by the lunatic fringe?
Posted Friday 6 Aug 2010 @ 4:52:11 am from IP # -
bluesky
MemberIn my own research have looked into whether house prices are influenced by the addition of solar pv in the course of my research. I contacted two big real estate data companies, APM who were very nice and replied to me last year, saying that they have not collected info for solar pv on house sales data, they are of the opinion that there has not been enough movement on house sales yet to determine effect.
Also spoke to real estate agent who does agree it helps to sell a house, but unsure whether it positively influences the actual house price. V. interesting research, I would be interested in your results.Posted Saturday 7 Aug 2010 @ 11:16:17 am from IP # -
Jeffbloggs
MemberCatopsilia
Why are you so pessimistic to the ability of Australians to acquire knew knowledge?
We might be simple but not dumb!
As bluesky pointed out there is no housing sale market to speak of atm (still), and 2009 saw by far the largest increase in PV ever, it will be impossible to predict from past house sales history if PV effects house prices. If anything you would have to look at Germany for some data, but then again it might be inaccurate, because the Germans are a smart bunch, seeing they already had a PV FIT for the last 10 years, since 2000.
But then maybe the PV system owners are actually smart enough not to sell when the housing market is down?BTW Buzzman
Why not use a shallow geothermal (with heat pump to assist) hydronic system, to the same effect as having the house in the ground...just simply pump some heat/cool up from the ground? Theres a few in Germany already,they are about 200sqm above ground houses with only a 1kW heat pump for heating/cooling and HWS. Plus in Germany you can install any size renewables anywhere you have enough space, and the electrical network must take it all, pay the max FIT and pay to install as much network upgrades as necessary to support it. There are quite a few energy positive houses there. hmmmm maybe that is why they're the world leaders in all renewables, even though their weather is rubbish compared to ours (ie no wind, no sun).Posted Saturday 7 Aug 2010 @ 1:19:27 pm from IP # -
dymonite69
MemberLike this?
Posted Saturday 7 Aug 2010 @ 11:15:13 pm from IP # -
Jeffbloggs
MemberYep hes doing a good job. I've already used his freezer mod, but with a plc to turn on the inverter electrical system etc, to cut down on standby usage without affecting convenience. Chk out this German high tech version of a energy plus house: http://www.gillout.com/lifestyle/heliotrop
If you're using google chrome, it will ask to translate it to English. But the pictures speak for themselves. It is nice to see some real money being spent on renewable house designs, I suppose a sign of the times, at least in Germany, that being green is the new black.Posted Sunday 8 Aug 2010 @ 2:36:06 am from IP # -
A winter house-heating system based on a large underground water tank is described in the link posted by dymonite69
http://mtbest.net/heat_pump.html
This system in the hills near Wilson's Promontory should work well, and the owner engages in other worthy projects. However, I feel the science is not quite on the mark, despite his adviser's PhD.Quote:
"To begin with, the system is designed (with Dr Mirek Piechowski from MP Energy Consulting, who holds a PhD in thermal sciences) to operate at very low heat source temperatures (4-10°C).
In this temperature range, the planetary interior actually heats up the water in the undergound tank, because underground soil temperatures are higher."The normal geothermal gradient from the hot core of the earth to the surface is orders of magnitude too small (0.03 degrees per metre) to be useful for house heating. (I thought about it once.) There are current projects to use the geothermal gradient for power generation at sites where the gradient is unusually high, but the plan is to bore kilomtres down to get useful temperatures.
I accept that winter temperatures in the buried water-tank may be about 5 degrees, as stated. The mean annual temperature at that location is about 13 degrees:
http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/climate_averages/temperature/index.jsp?maptype=6&period=an#maps
Subsoil temperature has a likely annual range of 12 degrees, giving a winter value of 7 degrees, which is close.
The observed winter temperature in the tank is fairly warm, not because of geothermal heat, but because the above-ground annual temperature range is reduced by damping as the sun's heat passes through the soil.Posted Sunday 8 Aug 2010 @ 3:25:22 am from IP # -
dymonite69
MemberThe problem lies in nomenclature. True geothermal energy is what Catopsilia refers to. Ground source heat pumps and earth tubes are not the same. Some people refer to all three as geothermal.
Posted Sunday 8 Aug 2010 @ 4:00:03 am from IP # -
Hello!
Solar feature in house increases the cost of the house. Solar houses are beneficial for both summers and winters.
____________________________________Looking for your dream home just click:- real estate or homes.
Posted Tuesday 7 Jun 2011 @ 10:02:46 am from IP # -
SteveJ
MemberIf I was in the market for a new house I would be looking for a house with PV among other things, not sure I would pay more though as other things impact greatly on what I would want. It is intersting to note in my council area just under 10% of all household have PV on the roof, I guess at it becomes 'normal' then there will be less impact on prices. I was told the composting toilets in my place would reduce the value significantly
Good thing I intend to die here.
Posted Tuesday 7 Jun 2011 @ 12:52:50 pm from IP # -
If I was in the market for a new house I would be looking for a house in a great location close to where I work and play. why ? because I have seen too many fabulous ECO houses where the owners have to drive miles every day .. sort of defeats the purpose .
the orientation of the house ,ease of maintenance , solar access and quality of construction would be high on my list too. these are all fixed factors .. in other words you can NOT change them. The variables can be fixed or improved and are thus less important .Posted Wednesday 8 Jun 2011 @ 6:54:48 am from IP # -
Following Dave, location far outweighs solar features. Solar-passive design is important, but high-tech solar energy devices may not have a long life.
Being within walking distance of facilities in a fairly large town is a high priority. Big cities may not be livable for very long. Being on a railway route will be a big advantage.Posted Wednesday 8 Jun 2011 @ 12:00:21 pm from IP # -
lmc6666
MemberMaybe think of it this way - buyers know they can always add solar panels later if they want to. They can't move the house to another location. Real estate is always location location location. Panels might be a nice bonus but not a key selling point. Eg If I look at a house I know I can gut the kitchen/bath/walls/add panels/tanks etc as $ come in later years pretty easily, but adding a new level ie expand envelope of building or a different location are the big things. Have them and the added extras come into play maybe pushing me over the line to a decision, but not neccessarily extra $. Low budget area maybe they don't feel they can stretch to the extras and extra $ at purchase time, high cost area maybe they know they can add later and probably have less fear of power bills increasing with higher income coming into house. Power bills are unlikely to be at the top of anybody's mind when shopping and trying to fall in love with a house and convince themselves to put big $ down for it. Just my two cents worth.
Posted Thursday 9 Jun 2011 @ 12:10:03 am from IP #
