The impact of COVID-19 on homeowners' decision to renovate
11 June 2020
Since April, Vereniging Eigen Huis (the Dutch homeowners association, which represents 800.000 Dutch homeowners) is surveying the impact of the COVID-19 on homeowners’ decision to invest in improving their house to make it more sustainable. The last data show that confidence is partly back in general terms, but the will to renovate does not seem to be always a top priority for homeowners.
In particular, the research shows that more than one in three members had plans to make their homes more sustainable before the coronavirus outbreak. Of these members willing to renovate, 26% indicated that they were waiting to make their homes more sustainable due to the corona virus outbreak. Compared to the previous study, this is a statistically significant decrease (from 40% to 26%). However, for the vast majority (97%), the corona crisis is no reason to make their homes more sustainable just now.
According to the survey, the main reasons still to postpone renovation are to keep financial reserves (58%) and to await the course of the crisis (57%). This is more or less in line with what already showed in the first survey conducted in April. Nonetheless, the number of people who prefer not to see other people on the floor has decreased significantly since April.
Even though the major plans such as insulation (of roof, floor, cavity wall) and the purchase of solar panels represent improvements more likely to be postponed, it is often still planned to implement small scale interventions. Also in this context, the data are in line with the previous measurement at the beginning of April.
These data underline the big difficulties that our sector still encounters in the recovery phase, but also show some improvements. To see the full survey, click here.
