Add natural light, add value to your home
When it comes to increasing the value of your property, there is always an abundance of opinions on what you can do.
A recent survey1 of second and third home buyers cited natural light as a key priority in terms of property investment, indicating that experienced home buyers recognise natural light as a key consideration when assessing a home’s worth. Highlighting the importance of natural light to the resale value of a house, the research showed that over 80% of survey respondents were prepared to spend up to $5,000 to ensure their new property was built with natural light as a priority and 17% of respondents were willing to spend more than $5,000 on additional means to enhance their home’s access to natural light. Good home design is crucial to ensure maximum natural light throughout the year and the right size windows in the correct place with suitable glazing is the key to achieving this. For homeowners renovating current living spaces, modification of existing under-glazed dwellings to lift appeal and resale value can be more difficult but not impossible. In this case, remedial strategies can help assist such as:
- Trim large trees that block windows in the home – you will need to check with your local council about the rules for your area.
- Install glazed skylights or canopies.
- Enlarge existing windows or reglaze existing windows with high performance glass to allow your windows to be decluttered of curtains, blinds and other obstacles that prevent the light getting in.
- Do not block light with furniture in front of the window.
- Use white or light colours throughout a room to reflect the natural light that comes in.
- Adding mirrors across from a window will help reflect the natural light into different parts of the room.
Natural light influences many elements of a living space and so factoring this into new build or renovation plans are crucial. Good home design which helps draw more of the right kind of light into the right part of your house for extended periods makes a world of difference to how we live and the value of how we live. Assessing the best window and glass option to increase natural light levels in your home has never been easier. As modern glass technologies improve, we can now enjoy numerous benefits thanks to the multitude of performance glass products now available. In addition to controlling and increasing the amount of natural light in our home, performance glass offers a variety of features which enhance different elements of our home life such as property value, space, security, temperature and comfort to name a few. For example, installing products like Viridian’s ComfortHush™ can significantly reduce the amount of external noise entering a home as it is an acoustic performance glass that can decrease noise levels by up to 34% and can also eliminate more than 99% of UV light. Aside from enhancing the comfort and liveability of your home, a small investment in good windows and glass to facilitate increased natural light could see big returns when it’s time to sell. Real Estate Agents, LJ Hooker, has devised a list of 17 Liveability Property Features which outlines the features of a property that offer the potential for increased comfort, reduced running costs and increased sale value, and featured in this list are windows (glazing) and shading or sun control. Viridian is helping homeowners recover natural light in their own living spaces with the launch of its Living Space campaign which aims to start a social conversation on natural light. The Living Space campaign looks at the impact natural light has on our home comfort, our wellbeing, our sense of freedom and space, our social interaction and connection to our outside environment. It also addresses everyday issues and concerns like home design trends, the space, safety and security a home provides, the energy efficiency of a home and how our health and wellbeing is impacted by natural light and our living environment.
1. [Display Villages Report, June 2014 by Lonergan Research on behalf of CSR. The research was sourced from a selection of second and third home buyers surveyed at three key Display Villages in Sydney in June 2014]? The Living Space is brought to you by Viridian New World Glass.