Compared to previous generations, millennial homebuyers came in late into real estate investing. Before now, most millennials are comfortable being home renters as opposed to being homebuyers.
In Nigeria, Lagos to be precise it is easier and more affordable to rent houses than to buy houses. However, due to the ridiculous current rent prices, millennials are now content with either staying in their parents’ houses or just saving up to buy a house, especially newlywed couples.
To answer this question of what millennial homebuyers want, let’s discuss who exactly millennials are. Millennials, also known as Generation Y, are categorised as those born between 1980 and 1995; with a population of over 2 billion worldwide.
Studies have shown that about 15% of these millennials already own a home while 60% of them have plans to buy houses in the near future. In addition, a significant percentage of millennials are convinced that real estate is a good space to invest.
What Millennial home buyers want
If millennials are part of your target market as a real estate agent, which of course they should be, then this article tells you what you need to note to attract them.
Smaller homes
Many millennials especially those that aren’t married yet have no need for large houses with 3 or more bedrooms. Households without kids tend to gravitate toward smaller homes and instead give priority to city amenities like supermarkets, bus stops etc.
In fact, even those that are married may still want to go for smaller houses because unlike the previous generations that had many children, millennials are going for smaller sized families and so it is only natural for smaller sized families to want small houses. Another reason millennials seek smaller houses is that they are less expensive to purchase.
[READ MORE: Lagos Government Reveals Reasons Behind New Land Use Charge]
Neutral colours
Well if you thought that painting the living room of the property you intend to sell red is a good choice then think again. Millennial homebuyers do not care about your personal feelings or colours. Any painting you intend to do in the house should be able to appeal to many people and neutral colours do that trick.
Even if you think it is boring, buyers like neutral colours on the walls and even floors. These colours provide a canvas for buyers to make any changes they see fit. Most buyers may not even want to paint the house as soon as they move in so it’s best you stick with neutral colours like cream, white, grey, beige when choosing paint colours.
Outdoor Space
When it comes to what millennial homebuyers want, a good outdoor space is not left behind, in fact, it is often as important as the inside space. Millennials are looking for a home with outdoor space that will give them the liberty to simply relax outside or have a BBQ with friends or to put their pets in a cage out or just a good parking space.
If you’re looking to draw millennial home buyers to your home when selling, you need to have the goal of creating good outdoor space in mind.
Low cost of maintenance
Call it lazy, call it the no-stress lifestyle, millennials desire homes that look fancy and upscale but also one that requires little maintenance.
Millennial home buyers would prefer to spend their time relaxing on weekends rather than spending time completing home maintenance tasks and repairs. It’s important that when targeting millennial home buyers you stress that your home has a low cost of maintenance.
Dedicated Workspace
This year has seen the paradigm shift from working at the office to working from home. Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown imposed on citizens, people got restricted from working from the office. This led to more people getting comfortable with working from home even after the lockdown was lifted.
So it is no surprise that a dedicated workspace is one of the features millennial home buyers would look at when picking a house. The need to travel back and forth from an office for work has been reduced. More and more millennials are looking for careers that don’t require a physical office location but rather can be done from the comfort of their home or remotely.
Homes that have a dedicated workspace are attractive to millennial homebuyers because they’re able to envision themselves working from the comfort of their home.
