Wow, 3 environment posts in a row.
I saw this article linked on Brenda Russell’s blog talking about an article that Garry Marr of the Financial Post. He questions if Canadians will spend more for ‘green’ homes?
Full Article Here
Al Gore would be proud. A new survey says 63% of Canadians are willing to spend more money to get a green home.
A poll conducted for Royal LePage Real Estate Services found 62% of those Canadians will spend anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 in order to get so-called green features.
“The mood of Canadian homebuyers and sellers is changing with the times — environmental concerns are impacting the decisions people are making about their dwellings,” said Phil Soper, chief executive of LePage. “From simple energy conservation efforts to more elaborate use of organic building materials, the environmental conscious mindset that our agents are seeing in clients is not a passing trend.”
LePage found that 8% of the 63% who want a green home will pay more than $20,000 extra for the privilege. The same survey found 72% of Canadians plan to look for a property with environmental improvements when they buy their next home.
Atlantic Canadians were the most likely to spend more money to buy a green home at 72% while Ontario finished last with only 60% of respondents in the province willing to pay more to go green,
The survey found 51% of respondents were concerned about the environment and felt changes needed to be made. Despite that concern, 54% of respondents said the changes would be too expensive to implement and 15% said they had no idea where to start.
“There are many simple and affordable measures than can lead to big gains for the environment and many of the practices can actually save homeowners money,” said Mr. Soper.
Almost three-quarters of Canadians say they are doing some traditional recycling. Another 74% say they have switched from regular light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs, 61% have added window and door sealers to prevent heat loss and 54% have switched to high efficiency washers and dryers and are using low flow water fixtures.
The survey was conducted by Angus Reid Strategies and completed on Oct. 16. It is considered accurate to within 2.75 percentage points, 19 times of 20.