Could Covid spark a trend for built-in home hygiene?

October 19, 2021 / Isla MacFarlane
Could Covid spark a trend for built-in home hygiene?

Claire Savill, associate director at Navana Property Group, looks at why and how housebuilders should give buyers reassurance that homes are designed with the future of Covid-19 and other pandemics in mind.

Covid-19 sparked a fresh look at how our homes impact our health and wellbeing.  Attention is now turning to one of the more tangible aspects of healthier design – how buildings contribute or not to the spread of infections.  It’s an area that housebuilders and their supply chain partners should explore further, especially for multi-residential developments.

Covid measures have been introduced in offices, transport hubs and shops but less so in residential settings to date.  There is huge opportunity and value in considering how we can bring across that knowledge to the homebuilding sector.  On the one hand, it’s about making sure developments are future proofed.  Science suggests that pandemics in general are becoming more and more likely due to urbanisation and global travel which make it easier for viruses to spread.  We also need to respond to customers’ needs right now.

Health and wellbeing have shot up buyers’ priority lists – consider, for example, the premium they are placing on homes with outdoor spaces.  Ikea’s 2021 Life at Home study found that after the pandemic, people want their homes to be clean, healthy places with wellbeing built into the design.

So, how should developers, housebuilders and their partners respond?  At Navana, we have been exploring how standards like IMMUNE, which was initially created for workplaces, can be deployed in residential schemes.  This considers how smarter design through the use of different materials or building layouts can help reduce the spread of viruses – introducing curved walls for instance makes it easier to keep surfaces clean as well as creating an interesting aesthetic.

These interventions aren’t without cost implications, of course, and any initiatives must reflect the different financial model for residential assets versus commercial space.  Public willingness to accept, and even expect, the introduction of health security measures has shifted over the past 18 months but it’s also imperative to avoid making people’s homes feel like sterile environments.  It’s more about making sensible material swaps while keeping the practicalities of running a building day to day in mind, such as finding alternatives to stainless steel touch plates which are commonly used for lifts or intercoms but are harder to disinfect.

The potential for a virus to spread is largely predicated on human behaviour so the way that a building is managed has a vital part to play.  This is where on-site teams can step in, keeping residents updated regularly about the risks of transmission in their local area and helping nudge people into good behaviours.  They can also add huge value by supporting with the more emotional side of dealing with outbreaks.

Last year Covid-19 presented new and unusual challenges such as what people should do about getting shopping delivered safely or taking their bins out if they tested positive. Pleasures like enjoying communal gardens suddenly became harder as residents tried to maintain their distance from others.  Developers should ensure their management partners put plans in place for these eventualities.  It’s this attention to detail that really makes a difference to the resident experience.  At Navana, we saw first-hand last year how much it mattered to customers at the buildings we manage to have reassurance from teams that some sort of normality remained and that steps were being taken to keep them safe.

We all hope that the worst of Covid-19 is behind us, but it would be foolish not to learn from the past 18 months and to expect that customers won’t want comfort about how future waves might be managed.  The residential sector is adept at adapting to changing lifestyles and responding to market need.  Covid-19 is no different and we should put our skills to work, taking inspiration from wider property initiatives to give residential buyers peace of mind.

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