Estate agents report increasing demand for AC

UK: Estate agents are reporting an increase in demand for homes with air conditioning following recent UK heatwaves.

New research by Direct Line home insurance reveals the rising demand for air conditioning, with 95% of estate agents reporting an increase in buyers looking for homes with built in cooling systems.

Nearly 90% of estate agents are also seeing a rise in homes coming to the market with built in air conditioning, with 36% insisting that air conditioning will increase the price offered for a property.

With temperatures rising, it is unsurprising that 86% of estate agents also expect to see demand from buyers for air conditioning growing in the future.

There continues to be a regional divide when it comes to temperatures, with 62% of Londoners saying their homes get unbearably hot, by contrast just 40% of Scots said they suffered from this issue.

The figures are based on research conducted by Censuswide on behalf of Direct Line Insurance with a sample of 250 UK residential estate agents last month.

A separate survey by Opinium Research on behalf of Direct Line Insurance found that 52% of UK adults admitted that their home can get unbearably hot. 

The survey of 2,000 UK adults in June, found 80% of UK adults saying it was a particular issue in hot weather.

“As continental living styles are increasingly adopted in the UK, the latest trend is to install air conditioning in the home to keep cool,” said Maria Lawrence, Direct Line’s product manager for home insurance. “Being able to turn down the temperature to reduce heat stress is attractive for homeowners as it can impact physical and mental wellbeing.”