PH+ UK advertisers receive sustainable building leads worth "hundreds of millions of pounds"

Advertisers in the first UK edition of Passive House Plus have been rewarded with leads on sustainable building projects estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds. 

As of 21 March, we had received and processed 113 enquiry forms from readers relating to our first UK edition. At the time of writing we have roughly 70 more forms to process, and we're expecting at least 100 more forms before this enquiry list closes in mid April. Enquiries from the Irish edition are currently being processed, but are expected to perform similarly – the first Irish only edition of Passive House Plus yielded over 200 enquiry forms.

Estimated project budgets were included in 24 out of 113 forms - 21% of the total. The combined value of these projects came in at £81.3 million – representing less than a quarter of the enquiries received to date. While it might be optimistic to assume that the remaining 79% of projects would hit the same sorts of budget totals – this would mean average budgets of some £380 million – it's reasonable to speculate that they may raise the total to a value in excess of £200 million.

79% of readers listed their profession, a figure which breaks down as follows:

Profession	percentage
Architects (including architectural technologists)	54%
Engineers	15%
Client (developer or self-builder	11%
Main contractor	8%
QS/building surveyors	8%
Planners	3%
Property consultants	1%

Project overview

100% listed the site location - as this was a mandatory field in the form. All bar six were in the UK.

64% listed the project type, breaking down as follows:

-59% new homes, most notably including two homes with respective budgets of £3m and £3.5m;

-14% new commercial/public buildings, including two imminent projects with budgets of £30m and £27m;

-11% are listed as "other", including two multi unit housing schemes and a 5000 sq m development with a £13m budget;

-12% home upgrades/extensions, including a 4500 sq ft development with a £7m budget.

35% of all forms listed the floor area of their building, 21% stated the estimated budget, 65% stated the project stage and 35% listed the estimated start date.

Project imperatives & concerns

Perhaps most revealingly, we ask readers to tell us what sustainability targets they're aiming for, and what concerns they wish to address. The response from the 1st batch of UK enquiries is as follows:

Target/concern	Number of enquiries
Certified passive	19%
Indoor air quality	20%
Low allergy & healthy building	36%
Low environmental impact	21%
Low running costs	32%
Natural building	22%
Near passive/low energy	36%

Intriguingly, when we look at the project imperatives of the 21% of readers who provided budget information, we see a doubling in the number of readers looking to build to certified passive levels, as well as a significantly increased interest in low allergy/healthy building. There may be a couple of reasons for this. It may just be the case that the people who are filling out budget information are being more thorough in how they fill out the enquiry form in general, and therefore are more likely to select project imperatives, although two categories - natural building and low environmental impact - were actually more popular amongst people who didn't include budget information. It may also be the case that the people who fill out budget information tend to have more fully articulated projects, and tend to have a better sense of what they want to build.

Imperatives where budget listed	percentage
Certified passive	38%
Indoor air quality	21%
Low allergy & healthy building	54%
Low environmental impact	17%
Low running costs	46%
Natural building	21%
Near passive/low energy	42%

Top ten enquiries – energy efficiency comes before renewables

The defining purpose of the enquiry form is if course to connect readers with advertisers, which they do by selecting the types of products/services offered by our current advertisers. Some of the more popular categories from the Irish system – such as rainwater harvesting, under floor heating, eco flooring & green cements/screeds – don’t feature at all, for a very simple reason: they weren’t advertised in our first UK issue.

The trend of the enquiries suggests our readers are most interested in the building fabric, although all of the four renewable energy technologies advertised – solar PV, solar thermal, heat pumps & wood burning stoves – featured on over a third of all forms.

Outside of the top ten, four enquiry categories featured on 30% or more of forms – external insulation (32%), cladding & renders (31%), demand controlled ventilation and timber frame (both 30%).

	Top enquiry categories	percentage
1	Passive house & low energy build systems	57%
2	Heat recovery ventilation	44%
3	Insulation	42%
4	Windows & doors	41%
5	Solar photovoltaic	40%
6	Airtightness & draught proofing products	39%
7	Solar thermal	35%
8	Heat pumps	34%
9	Thermal breaks	34%
10	Wood burning stoves	33%

Contact details

Of course, an enquiry’s only possible to pursue if the reader includes contact information.
 
100% of enquiries listed a contact name, including one assumed name, which reads like a Twitter handle.

77% of readers listed their company name, and while the majority of readers listed their phone number, email and postal address, every reader gave at least one way of getting in contact. 99% listed their email address, 57% listed their phone number and 98% listed their postal address.

Interested in advertising?

For information on advertising click here. To enquire about our performance-based advertising deals – where we’ll offer a full refund if we fail to provide a pre-agreed target number of enquiries - contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..