Understanding Homeowners’ Renovation Decisions: Findings of the VERD Project

This report summarises the findings, revealing why homeowners renovate and why they decide to improve their home energy efficiency. The findings summarised here are based on data collected from homeowners in three ways: a national survey; interviews; stated preferences for renovation alternatives. The findings also build on an extensive review of published articles and reports on home renovations.

The survey took place in September 2012 and drew from a representative sample of 1028 UK homeowners, who were asked whether or not they were considering renovations. About half said they were not. The other half, who were, were asked how far along they were in their decision process. About 19% were thinking about renovations in general terms, 16% were concretely planning renovations, and the remaining 15% were in the middle of or finalising renovations.

The data collected allowed the VERD team to answer the following questions:

1. Why do homeowners first start thinking about renovations?
2. How do homeowners decide to renovate? And why do they include energy-efficiency measures?
3. What value propositions are attractive to renovating homeowners? And what role might the Green Deal play?