We all stand to benefit greatly from the myriad of new eco-friendly technologies being incorporated into buildings these days, and that includes homes and commercial properties. Solar energy utilization is first and foremost there of course, but there’s much more that’s either been introduced or is just around the corner.
Homes that feature these sorts of new technologies have their value significantly increased by them, and it’s a fact that an increasingly large number of prospective home buyers are explicitly looking for homes that lend themselves to their living with less of a footprint. As a realtor, all of this should be very interesting for you, as the best in the profession will always have their ears to the ground looking for and then understanding current trends that play into their client demographics.
Here at Real Estate Leads, our online real estate lead generation system puts you into greater numbers of position to put that know-how to use in making clients aware that you truly are an expert in the real estate business. We like to do what we can to assist in that process, so let’s spend today getting to know one of the eco-technology home advancements a little better.
A Green Roof Overhead
A newly released survey by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities – the North American green roof and wall industry association – has found that Montreal and Quebec are among the top ten North American cities when it comes to green roof installations.
Toronto leads the way in the 2016 Annual Green Roof Industry Survey, while Montreal places sixth and Quebec City tenth. Vancouver rounds out the Canadian cities in the top ten at #9.
It’s somewhat to be expected that Toronto is tops in green roofs: In 2010, Hogtown passed a first-of-its-kind Green Roof Bylaw in North America that made it a requirement for new commercial, institutional and multi-family residential developments to cover between 20 and 60 % of their buildings with vegetation.
2016 saw close to 700,000 square feet of green roofing installed in Toronto, while Montreal, Vancouver and Quebec City each installed more than 100,000 sq. ft during that same period.
Cities like Montreal and Quebec City, however, lack firm bylaws requiring green roofs and as such it’s hard to encourage builders on a large scale. There’s really no incentives for the general population to install green roofs, so in most instances the homeowner decides to do it on their own. Some Quebec cities put requirements in place for LEED environmental certifications for new projects and that’s one effective way that cities ALL ACROSS Canada can promote the installation of green roofs. Done effectively, we could at least see a lot more green roofs on institutional buildings.
It’s believe that if formal economic and political incentives were put in place for green roofs, their numbers would multiply.
Smart Practicality
Rooftop farms are the best example of application of this type of technology where it’s really needed.Plants are irrigated with water from a dehumidification system, and the green rooftop reduces heat islands and improves and promotes bio-diversity.
This application can be both residential and commercial, and a home with a viable rooftop growing plot would be extremely attractive to any number of buyers. The thought of growing kale, Swiss chard, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, green beans, yellow beans, tomatoes, eggplant, etc. etc. would be very appealing to many green-minded young 1st time home buyers.
We are definitely seeing only the tip of the iceberg with all of these new green home technologies, and it’s definitely exciting for anyone who works in the business of housing, real estate agents most definitely included.
Sign up for Real Estate Leads here and receive a guaranteed monthly quota of online-generate buyer and / or seller leads delivered to you exclusively and for your own privately-owned area of any city or town in Canada. It’s a bonafide dynamite way to get so much more out of all the effort you’ll be putting into client prospecting as a new realtor.
