{"id":103266,"date":"2026-08-14T06:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T06:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/103266\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T06:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T06:24:09","slug":"the-hot-weather-is-changing-what-uk-house-buyers-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/103266\/","title":{"rendered":"The hot weather is changing what UK house buyers want"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Online buyer searches for homes<\/a> for sale featuring air conditioning<\/a> have more than doubled during the late spring and summer months compared to last year. <\/p>\n

Property portal Rightmove<\/a> recorded a 104% increase in user searches across its website between May 1 and July 31, compared with the identical period from a year earlier. <\/p>\n

The UK experienced its hottest day of the year so far on Thursday as temperatures<\/a> soared to 38.1C in Kew Gardens. <\/p>\n

Thursday also set a new record for the number of days above 36C in a single year. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, amber warnings<\/a> for “extreme heat” came into force across parts of England, and a yellow weather<\/a> warning for thunderstorms is in place for Northern Ireland. <\/p>\n

Last week, Citizens Advice<\/a> found that one in one in six Britons<\/a> are taking “drastic action” to cope with heatwaves<\/a>, including sleeping in kitchens<\/a>, missing work<\/a>, or booking hotels<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"An<\/a> An estate agent has noted an important change in buyer behaviour (Alamy\/PA) <\/p>\n

The charity warns millions across the UK are “trapped in homes they can’t cool”, with almost half (44%) feeling powerless to prevent their houses overheating. <\/p>\n

The study attributes this struggle to poorly designed homes, which act as “heat traps”, and the high cost of cooling equipment such as air conditioning, leaving people helpless. <\/p>\n

Colleen Babcock, a property expert at Rightmove, said: “This summer’s heatwaves appear to be influencing how people think about their homes.” <\/p>\n

Mark Wiggin, director of Mark Wiggin Estate Agents<\/a>, said: “Energy efficiency and a home’s ability to stay comfortable throughout the year have become much more important considerations when people are deciding where to live.” <\/p>\n

James Waight, head of sales at John D Wood & Co said: “We are seeing buyers pay closer attention to air conditioning, ventilation and how well a home retains a comfortable temperature during warmer months.” <\/p>\n

\"Comfort<\/a> Comfort and liveability are increasingly being considered alongside traditional factors such as location, space and price, an estate agent said (Getty Images) <\/p>\n

Ian Harris, president of NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents) Propertymark said: “Whilst air conditioning is clearly becoming a more visible feature on buyers’ wish lists, agents are seeing a broader shift in what people want from a home: comfort and liveability are increasingly being considered alongside traditional factors such as location, space and price. <\/p>\n

“What is particularly interesting is that buyers are becoming more alert to how a property will perform in different conditions, rather than simply looking at individual features. <\/p>\n

“Agents are increasingly fielding questions about ventilation, natural shade, glazing, orientation and energy costs, with buyers wanting to understand what living in a property will actually feel like throughout the year. <\/p>\n

“This is an important change in buyer behaviour. As hotter summers become more familiar, the ability of a home to remain comfortable in warm weather is likely to become a more established consideration during viewings and valuations, rather than something buyers only think about once they have moved in.” <\/p>\n

Conditions across the UK housing market remained subdued during July, with buyer demand and agreed sales displaying few indications of a significant recovery, according to surveyors. <\/p>\n

A net balance of 28% of property professionals surveyed reported a decline in new buyer inquiries in July, a figure that was unchanged from June, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) said. <\/p>\n

Despite remaining negative, the figure shows an improvement from a recent low net balance of 41% of professionals in March, which Rics noted indicates that the overall pace of deteriorating demand has eased. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Online buyer searches for homes for sale featuring air conditioning have more than doubled during the late spring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[26217,43392,3458,5,6],"class_list":["post-103266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-air-conditioning","tag-buyer-behaviour","tag-rightmove","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117092434911453203","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}