Home designs of the future are going to be filled with technological advances that will make owning and operating a house easier than ever before. They also need to be filled with environmentally conscious features that will help people to save the planet and save money.
When designing and constructing the homes of the future, architects and builders need to take into account how the demands and expectations people have of their homes are changing. To make the most of an investment in a new build home or a large-scale renovation, you need to install future-proof features that will make the home desirable to buyers throughout the 2020s and beyond.
Solar Panels
Modern home designs require modern solutions to modern problems. There is no bigger problem facing homeowners today than the constant increase in the price of domestic energy. Whether it is electricity or natural gas, the bills are climbing. The homes of the future need to take this into account during both the design and construction phases of development.
This feature is not only desirable to prospective buyers, but it is also a way for them to offset some of the cost of their investment in the property. Look at this guide from the Federation of Master Builders on how long it takes to make money back on solar panels. Very quickly house buyers can recoup some of the added cost of solar panels, making them a very attractive feature for a new home.
Any home being designed today, or an older property being renovated, should be looking at how to incorporate solar power generation into the project. Not only will it help sell the home but it will also help to save the planet, and it will reduce the carbon footprint of construction.
Home EV Charging Stations
A garage to house the family cars has always been a desirable feature among homebuyers, but in the future, they are going to be looking for home designs that gives them electric vehicle charging options as well as a parking space.
EVs are quickly becoming the most popular type of new vehicle to buy. It is easy to see why; prices at the petrol pump a rising just like home energy costs. In the very near future, the second-hand EV market is going to explode as mass-market EVs that were new just ten years ago get swapped for the latest models. When this happens, electric vehicles are going to be bought by people who cannot afford a new car and cannot afford to miss out on the savings that EVs provide.
Home charging is the most convenient way to keep an electric car’s battery topped up. It will charge overnight while you sleep and give you the range you need for the rest of the day. Designing homes with this in mind can be a unique selling point that gives a new property an edge over local competition.
In smaller developments, where parking spaces may be limited at homes and apartments, EV charging in communal car parks will become the norm. Soon, most domestic parking spaces in the UK will have some kind of EV charging option as these cars become more widely driven by the public.
Smart Homes With Smart Features
In nearly every home in the UK, people are adding smart features and appliances to make their lives a little easier. You can now control many different systems in your home from a tap on the screen of your phone and even by giving a voice command to a digital assistant.
These features are going to become standard equipment in homes in the near future, and buyers are going to expect to see smart home devices pre-installed in new builds and renovated properties. House designers need to look at ways to utilise this technology to provide potential house buyers with new and unique features that help their homes stand out from the rest.
Smart home heating and lighting are easy to design and install into any building, giving the future property owner a desirable smart feature to use when they move in. With these systems, you can turn lights on and off in the home from your phone and even turn the heating on and off and change its timings.
This technology is interchangeable between the different systems that consumers can choose between for their smart home. Whether they prefer Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Home, or Microsoft’s Cortana, the systems you install will be compatible and allow homeowners to command their home with the sound of their voice.
Energy-Efficient Home Heating
The biggest operating cost for the average UK home is the heating bill. During the long, cold nights of a British winter hot water boilers and copper pipework keep our homes warm and cosy. This comes at a high cost though, and costs are climbing even higher. The price of natural gas is increasing several times a year and will never drop down to the levels consumers enjoyed just a few years ago.
Home designs that are efficient to heat will be important in the near future as governments around the world look for ways to curb carbon emissions.
Architects and builders will soon find themselves and the properties they produce coming under similar energy-saving regulations and ratings to domestic appliance manufacturers. Properties already need to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), and initiatives like this are only going to become more common in the coming decade, especially for new build developments.
Heat pumps are the future of home heating. They are incredibly energy efficient and cost-effective to run and can make a huge reduction to a home’s carbon footprint. Designing homes with the supporting infrastructure that a heat pump needs to be effective will become standard in the next ten years.
Sustainable Building Materials
When you think of a house’s features, you probably do not think of the bricks and mortar that make the construction. The truth is that the materials used to build a property are a feature of it. In the near future, how a home was built and what was used to construct it will become an important concern for environmentally conscious house buyers.
The materials used will also be important to both local and national governments. The environmental targets that have been set for the nation will require new constructions to rely less on carbon-intensive materials like concrete and use recycled or recyclable materials instead.
Bamboo, straw bales, hempcrete, and recycled plastics are just some of the modern construction materials that builders can expect to be working with over the coming years. House designers need to take these materials into account too. They present new design opportunities to architects and will have an impact on how houses look inside and out in the future.
Every feature on this home designs list will be welcomed on a home sold in the next decade. House buyers are often eager to make cosmetic changes to a home to put their touch on the decor, but expensive installations like solar panels and heat pump systems are not on their to-do list.
Adding these features at the design and construction phase of a build will make a home more desirable and easier to sell. If you don’t, you run the risk of losing a buyer to a home that does.
