Know your customer, they say, and you know how to make money.  Very true. Knowing who is most likely to buy from you and what they want from you is an essential part of any business.  

And this is as important in the property development sector as any other. As when you understand the type of people who want to buy your properties – and what type of property they are looking to buy – then you know more about how to plan, build and market your developments.

There are some obvious perks to buying new builds, which make them attractive to all buyers. These include lack of maintenance issues, and the certainty of entry date and sale price. Also, new homes are normally more energy efficient and cheaper to run than older housing stock. And, when you move into a new property, everything is clean and fresh. So, you don’t have to worry about spending money as soon as you move in, or what to do about the rotting avocado bathroom suite that’s been there since 1976. 

But dig deeper into these universal advantages and you start to find many nuances within the new build market. This is because you don’t just have one type of buyer and different groups of people want different things. This is true of customers in any sector, but it is particularly pertinent when it comes to buying property.   

Because, obviously not all people want the same thing from a new build. What suits the young family, excited about buying their first home, is completely different to what the retired downsizing couple are looking for in a property, or someone who is buying purely for investment purposes.

The fact that different types of property attract different sets of people is an important consideration when planning, building and marketing a new development. Equally, the location of your development will often have a major bearing on the type of buyer you are most likely to attract. 

So, let’s take a close look at the four main buyer types for new homes: 

Investors: buyers looking to earn income from renting their new home

Downsizers: typically older buyers whose children have moved out and moving to have less maintenance and more time to enjoy retirement

Upsizers: families or couples starting a family that need more space than where they are living now

First-time buyers: those getting onto the housing ladder for the first time

We’ll explore what each of these groups want and need and what it means for developers over the next few weeks.