What demotivates homeowners to retrofit their houses: a systematic review

Coates, Paul; Munir, Mustapha; Panakaduwa, Chamara

Abstract

The study identifies the factors that demotivate homeowners from
retrofitting their houses. Retrofit is defined as improving the energy performance, ventilation or reducing carbon emission of a building. According to the statistics, the progress rate of sustainable housing retrofit in the United Kingdom is poor, which has become a critical bottleneck in mitigating climate risks under the UK climate actions. The housing sector is responsible for around 18% of the total
UK Carbon emissions. One of the main barriers driving housing retrofit is poor homeowner motivation for retrofit. A systematic literature review approach has been used in this study. The PRISMA method of systematic review was adaptively followed to make the review more transparent, accurate and standard. The findings include personal and social drivers, financial constraints, reliability/trust and government policies as the main factors of demotivation. The
total list consists of 67 demotivating factors from 40 high-rank journal articles. The findings are important for policy actions as well as for driving retrofit programmes in the construction industry. The homeowner’s decision-making is a deterministic factor in driving sustainable retrofit. Thus, identifying motivational barriers will be a key priority in driving retrofit at a scale.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 14th International Conference on Sustainable Built Environment – (ICSBE) 2023
• Start Date: Dec 15, 2023
• End Date: Dec 17, 2023
• Acceptance Date: Dec 15, 2023
• Publication Date: Dec 18, 2024
• Deposit Date: May 20, 2024
• Publisher URL: https://www.kandyconference.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/volume-2-online.pdf