The health benefits of a home are becoming increasingly important in the buying decision – but are developers taking full advantage of this sales angle? In this article, we explore the potential price premium new build homes can derive from incorporating systems that safeguard health and wellbeing.
As climate change accelerates, hay fever sufferers are experiencing increasingly extreme symptoms, and the number of people affected is growing. Smart developers are thinking ahead and including Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) systems into their builds to address this.
As well as ensuring their new build homes are more appealing to potential buyers, marketing the many benefits of MVHR will also help forward-thinking developers to stand out in the new home market. By turning the spotlight onto these healthful home additions, reinforcing how they can increase the comfort of a growing population of allergy sufferers, developers could potentially unlock greater market share.
Hay fever: 16 million people and counting
Hay fever, aka allergic rhinitis, is where an allergy to pollen triggers symptoms like sneezing, coughing, a blocked nose, itchy eyes, loss of smell, headaches and fatigue. Late March to September, when tree and grass pollen counts are at their highest, are the prime months for suffers to experience these debilitating symptoms.
In the UK alone, around 16 million people – one in four adults – suffer from allergic rhinitis, with inland areas, the South of England and urban centres proving most triggering for the hay fever allergy. Recent research has found that urbanisation and air pollution heightens hay fever by increasing the concentration of a key allergen within certain pollens. Other studies highlight the fact that oak and grass pollen seasons are starting earlier and displaying increasingly erratic pollen seasons – all fuelled by the unusual weather patterns driven by climate change.
Future predictions for this health condition are worrying. The highest estimates suggest there’s the potential for one in two adults to develop hay fever over the next five years. Even more modest predictions note a “significant increase” in the number of people with the allergy, as 37% of adult sufferers report having developed symptoms for the first time in the last five years.
With double the number of people set to live in hay-fever-exacerbating urban areas in the future, and the potential for half of all adults in certain geographies to develop hay fever within the coming decade – this health concern is going to affect an increasing proportion of the population. Crucially for developers, this includes new home buyers.
Balancing environmental comfort and allergens
Although hay fever is an incurable condition, the NHS advises sufferers to manage their symptoms through a combination of medicines like antihistamines, nasal sprays and eye drops. It also advises various lifestyle changes like staying indoors and keeping windows shut.
Increasingly hot UK summers are making it difficult for sufferers to follow these simple measures. For those living in older homes that lack adequate ventilation, indoor conditions can become stifling without open windows. And for residents whose homes were constructed under the new Building Regulations, trickle vents in all doors and windows provide a permanent inlet for pollen.
Striking the balance between a comfortable temperature and not exacerbating symptoms is set to become increasingly difficult as temperatures continue to rise. To combat this, smart developers are exploring the use of MVHR systems with integrated filter systems to improve quality of life for increasing numbers of hay fever-plagued UK homeowners.
How MVHR can help hay fever sufferers
Air filtration using an MVHR can offer the best of both worlds – helping to keep a home cool in high summer temperatures, while also filtering out harmful pollens and other allergens. There are four prime ways that an MVHR system can help hay fever sufferers:
1. Filtering out pollens: MVHR systems offer a choice of filter grades including dust filters, pollen filters and carbon filters to remove the pollution from heavy traffic fumes that’s been drawn inside from outside. This prevents the pollens and other pollutions from entering the air circulating around indoor living spaces.
2. Ensuring fresh air: By constantly circulating fresh air through the home, MVHR systems help to dilute any indoor pollen brought in when doors are opened. Because hay fever sufferers are more sensitive to other allergy triggers during high-pollen months, this also improves comfort by reducing levels of other allergy triggers such as dust mites, mould spores, or volatile organic compounds released by certain materials or products.
3. Balancing humidity: Excessively dry or humid conditions can exacerbate allergy symptoms, so appropriate humidity levels are crucial. Advanced MVHR systems will efficiently remove excess air moisture during the winter months, so they’re useful for regulating and balancing indoor humidity levels.
4. Reducing drafts: Sudden drafts of pollen-laden outdoor air can trigger symptoms for hay fever suffers, so controlled and filtered ventilation at the same temperature as the extracted air that then distributes evenly throughout living spaces is a significant benefit.
A healthier housing market for buyers and developers
The strong benefits of MVHR for allergy sufferers makes these systems a powerful selling point for house builderss, particularly for the growing segment of the population suffering from allergies. Alongside MVHR proven energy efficiencies and other indoor climate benefits, relief from allergy symptoms will become another effective draw for new home buyers.
Smart developers will get ahead of this curve and include MVHR systems in the housing stock they’re building today. They’ll also engage in targeted marketing drives that outline the benefits of MVHR-equipped homes, helping them to capitalise on customer interest.
People want healthier, more efficient homes – and are often willing to pay a price premium for them – so using MVHR technology today will equate to more sales and better returns for developers tomorrow. To explore this topic further, there’s lots of information on our website, or get in touch with a member of our team to find out more. 
At Wavin, our purpose is to build healthy sustainable environments. Our tailored indoor climate solutions feature our market leading systems and products including underfloor heating, heat interface units, MVHR and single controls (interfacing with all of these technologies). They provide the following benefits:
- Improved energy efficiency
- Low maintenance
- More space and design freedom
- Compatible with all floor types and coverings
- Comfortable environments with even heat and less dust
- Full zone control
- Flexible solutions including installation and after-sales support
- Design and system selection support
- Wavin’s extensive experience in residential projects as the market leader in Europe
