Can you tell us more about the Home Quality Mark?

The Home Quality Mark is a certification given to a new residential dwelling.

It enables home buyers to appreciate the sustainability credentials of a new home – energy, water efficiency, drying spaces, surface water risk, ecology, for example.

It’s rated on a five-star system, where five is the best rating and one is the worst.

Would a house seller seek out a Home Quality Mark?     

Home sellers in the sense of large developers – Taylor Wimpey, Redrow, Persimmon etc, are always looking for something to differentiate their homes from those of their competitors.

The Home Quality Mark demonstrates the energy efficiency of a home and how economical it would be to run. 

Large developers sell many thousands of properties and so the Home Quality Mark acts as an important differentiator.

Has the Home Quality Mark replaced any other standard?

The Home Quality Mark has replaced the Code for Sustainable Homes, which was abolished a few years ago. Local authorities used this as a policy to ensure new developments were environmentally friendly.

The Home Quality Mark is not a governmental policy as yet, but local developers place great importance on it as a standard.

Are you seeing increasing pick up of the Home Quality Mark?

We do expect to carry out full assessments for Home Quality Mark accreditations, but as yet it’s only been pre-assessments. 

Currently the Home Quality Mark is seen as a distinguishing factor between different builders and as the standard is promoted more widely, we’d expect to see more developers looking to accredit their developments in this way.

CGC have become a Home Quality Mark assessor.  Can you briefly describe the process of becoming an assessor and the role CGC plays as a Home Quality Mark assessor?

To become a Home Quality Mark assessor there is a vast amount of information to assimilate. 

There’s a four day course which goes through all the required information contained in a manual. There’s also post study work to fully understand each issue and then two, two hour final exams.

In tems of what we do, our role is to understand the reasons a seller wants to use the Home Quality Mark, their individual requirements and then how we can structure the Home Quality Mark to these requirements. 

We’ll do a pre-assessment with our client, talk through exactly what they want to achieve and then we’ll carry out audits.     

Is there a need to repeat the initial process of becoming a Home Quality Mark assessor or is it just a one-off procedure?

The exam is a one-off requirement, but when an assessor carries out an assessment and submits it for certification, the Building Research Establishment (BRE) act as auditors to ensure standards are maintained.

How does the five-star rating appraisal scheme work?

As a Home Quality Mark assessor, at the pre-assessment stage we’ll discuss the ratings we feel a development can achieve.

We then ask for evidence to back up the work the developer has done and then confirm that our pre-assessment expectations match the end development credentials.

Could you outline the value of the Home Quality Mark from both a planner’s perspective and also a home buyer’s point of view?

The value add from the planner’s perspective is that the certification demonstrates that a building has achieved good environmental standards and is efficient to run.  This makes it an attractive selling proposition.

From the developer’s perspective, the Home Quality Mark acts as a worthy differentiating factor against competition.

Has  there been any evidence to suggest that having the Home Quality Mark does increase the value of a property?

That’s difficult to say.  As yet, we can’t categorically state that value of a home with a Home Quality Mark is higher than a similar one which doesn’t possess this certification.

However, this was the case with the certification the Home Quality Mark replaced. The Code for Sustainable Homes, as a policy, did have a significant bearing on value and properties with high ratings did command higher prices.

Can you tell us more about the Home Quality Mark?

The Home Quality Mark is a certification given to a new residential dwelling.

It enables home buyers to appreciate the sustainability credentials of a new home – energy, water efficiency, drying spaces, surface water risk, ecology, for example.

It’s rated on a five-star system, where five is the best rating and one is the worst.

Would a house seller seek out a Home Quality Mark?     

Home sellers in the sense of large developers – Taylor Wimpey, Redrow, Persimmon etc, are always looking for something to differentiate their homes from those of their competitors.

The Home Quality Mark demonstrates the energy efficiency of a home and how economical it would be to run. 

Large developers sell many thousands of properties and so the Home Quality Mark acts as an important differentiator.

Has the Home Quality Mark replaced any other standard?

The Home Quality Mark has replaced the Code for Sustainable Homes, which was abolished a few years ago. Local authorities used this as a policy to ensure new developments were environmentally friendly.

The Home Quality Mark is not a governmental policy as yet, but local developers place great importance on it as a standard.

Are you seeing increasing pick up of the Home Quality Mark?

We do expect to carry out full assessments for Home Quality Mark accreditations, but as yet it’s only been pre-assessments. 

Currently the Home Quality Mark is seen as a distinguishing factor between different builders and as the standard is promoted more widely, we’d expect to see more developers looking to accredit their developments in this way.

CGC have become a Home Quality Mark assessor.  Can you briefly describe the process of becoming an assessor and the role CGC plays as a Home Quality Mark assessor?

To become a Home Quality Mark assessor there is a vast amount of information to assimilate. 

There’s a four day course which goes through all the required information contained in a manual. There’s also post study work to fully understand each issue and then two, two hour final exams.

In tems of what we do, our role is to understand the reasons a seller wants to use the Home Quality Mark, their individual requirements and then how we can structure the Home Quality Mark to these requirements. 

We’ll do a pre-assessment with our client, talk through exactly what they want to achieve and then we’ll carry out audits.     

Is there a need to repeat the initial process of becoming a Home Quality Mark assessor or is it just a one-off procedure?

The exam is a one-off requirement, but when an assessor carries out an assessment and submits it for certification, the Building Research Establishment (BRE) act as auditors to ensure standards are maintained.

How does the five-star rating appraisal scheme work?

As a Home Quality Mark assessor, at the pre-assessment stage we’ll discuss the ratings we feel a development can achieve.

We then ask for evidence to back up the work the developer has done and then confirm that our pre-assessment expectations match the end development credentials.

Could you outline the value of the Home Quality Mark from both a planner’s perspective and also a home buyer’s point of view?

The value add from the planner’s perspective is that the certification demonstrates that a building has achieved good environmental standards and is efficient to run.  This makes it an attractive selling proposition.

From the developer’s perspective, the Home Quality Mark acts as a worthy differentiating factor against competition.

Has  there been any evidence to suggest that having the Home Quality Mark does increase the value of a property?

That’s difficult to say.  As yet, we can’t categorically state that value of a home with a Home Quality Mark is higher than a similar one which doesn’t possess this certification.

However, this was the case with the certification the Home Quality Mark replaced. The Code for Sustainable Homes, as a policy, did have a significant bearing on value and properties with high ratings did command higher prices.