Research conducted by Australian Apartment Advocacy (AAA) has revealed that 23% of Victorian respondents, from a total of 3312 nationally, counted environmental attributes extremely or very important when purchasing their apartment. And interestingly, in contrast to its NSW counterparts that reflected 50% of respondents as being retirees, 57% of Victoria’s environmentally focused households were in fact young professionals.
Not surprisingly 29% of these respondents stated they liked the environmental credentials of their building (compared to 21% in NSW) and in addition, these respondents tended to be more active with their apartment amenities utilising the outdoor recreation areas and pool.
However, these respondents were on par with other owner occupiers, emphasising they purchased their apartments because of its location (84%) and being close to public transport (71%).
Director of AAA Samantha Reece stated that ABS data revealed that young people aged 18-24 and older adults were inclined to be concerned about environmental matters (77% and 71% respectively) then other age groups.
“The ABS data also revealed that 88% of Australians had taken steps to limit their energy use, with residents recognising the direct link to carbon emissions,” Ms Reece said.
“There is no doubt that this trend has grown over the last 10-15 years and it is safe to assume that as the primary target markets for apartments are young professionals and baby boomers, this is a trend that we can expect to continue in the longer term.”
Simon James, Executive General Manager Marketing and Sales of WINconnect, a specialist in community energy networks, stated that research with 5000 of their 50,000 customers indicated that 33% were seeking to purchase green power or carbon offsets to reduce their carbon emissions.
“62% of respondents were also seeking a Smart phone App which would allow them to monitor their energy usage with a further 55% seeking benchmark data about how apartments of their size are consuming energy,” Mr James said.
“Providing customers with the control to utilise and manage their energy consumption is a tool that we have recognised is essential as the energy market continues to be deregulated and we are certainly seeing that environmental focus evolve rapidly within the Property Development sector.”
