Your Home Buyer's Guide Case Study
Clarendon, in partnership with the Australian Greenhouse Office (AGO), the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, Landcom, the Queensland Environment Protection Agency, Sustainability Victoria, the Western Australian Department of Planning and Infrastructure, Western Australian Planning Commission and the Building Commission (Victoria) has developed the 'Your Home Buyer's Guide'. The guide, which has been independently researched by the Institute of Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney and the Centre for Design at RMIT University, will become part of the AGO's series of 'Your Home' documents at www.yourhome.gov.au.
The guide was created to:
- create buyer awareness of the benefits of sustainable housing at point of sale (especially cost savings, health, safety and lifestyle benefits)
- influence the selection of more sustainable optional features (including 'sustainability' packages); and
- encourage residents to adopt additional technological and behavioural changes (outside the sale contract) that will improve the sustainability of their home and lifestyle.
This product is an easy-to-use guide that informs purchasers and provides them with a checklist with which to compare project home products and optional features. It is not a 'green' or 'sustainable' home guide, but rather one that speaks the language of project home clients. The Guide is available to any builder who wishes to use it to help educate their clients.
The Guide:
- steps home buyers through all the environmental issues they'll face in choosing a project home;
- gives home buyers guidance on options, their costs and benefits;
- provides content and images that can be used for complimentary projects; and
- generates awareness about the environmental impacts (including running costs) of project homes and stimulates demand for more sustainable project homes.
We believe the guide, when officially launched, will provide a major contribution to educating the market on a significant emerging issue. It still is a truism that 'contract home purchasers want more sustainable features in the houses they buy but they don't want to pay for them'. The Guide is designed to enhance our reputation in the market and, by forging partnerships with all major governments and government joint venture partners (such as Landcom) we deal with, enhance our relationships with key authorities too.
Back to Top