Modern Homes for Modern People

Apex Planning Consultants Smart Home

Can new home developers keep up with demands for technological, environmental and sustainable improvements from house buyers, while also making them affordable – and making a profit for themselves? Our latest article explores…

More than just a house

With the continued and rising demand for new homes – not least from the Labour Government – developers have more to consider than just keeping up with housing targets. In this post-Covid world, prospective home buyers are looking for more than just bricks, doors and windows from their purchase.

It’s not just the buyers driving changes – the requirement for sustainable processes is of course driven by government requirements. It’s 20 years or so since building regulations formally began to include sustainability, and the new regulations introduced in 2022 went further, including improving the energy efficiency and ventilation of buildings, cutting CO2 emissions by 30%, new rules around solar heating, and installing electric vehicle charging points. And of course, none of these come cheap, even with caveats such as a £3,600 price cap per charge point.

Increasingly, new homes are built using responsibly sourced materials, low-VOC paints, and modular building methods, which may cut down on waste and improve efficiency, but they do come with extra costs.

Smart homes

Layout is important too, and with more than 40% of UK workers working from home at least for part of the working week, demand for home offices, along with multipurpose spaces, open-plan living, and outdoor spaces has risen.

And home buyers want to see technological improvements, too. The ‘smart home’ has surged in popularity over the past few years, with smart systems covering security systems, lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) controls, and energy-efficient appliances. The Samsung Smart Home Buyers Index suggests that 80% of those planning to move house in the next five years want their next home to be a smart one.

Paul Smith, of Milton Keynes-based Apex Planning Consultants, agrees that buyers will certainly want new homes to be more tech/smart: ‘’This is not just a desire, but an expectation and selling point,’’ he says. And he agrees that internal layouts need more thought than ever before: working from home means considering broadband speeds, hub locations and WiFi spread, noise and the avoidance of distraction. An easier task perhaps in larger homes, but a challenge to housebuilders and architects in more affordable homes.

Improved wellbeing

And last but by no means least, lifestyle and wellbeing are becoming increasingly important factors too when designing new developments, with requirements for increased biodiversity – laid out in the Sunak Conservative government in February 2024. Indeed a study by The Health Foundation last July shows that living near green space can increase life expectancy.

New homes now come with many expectations – helping national targets towards net zero, improving lifestyle, health and wellbeing. The challenge for developers is to achieve all this without making new homes unaffordable.

If you would like to discuss your own new project with us, or just find out more about what we do, please continue to browse the website or drop us an email to: info@apexplanning.co.uk without obligation.