Sensing a shift in the gender and age of its buyers, M/I Homes is responding with new house designs to meet this audience. “When we design homes today we are looking at who the buyer is, and we are looking at affordability,” says Dan O’Malley, vice president of product development. “We want to make sure that the houses we create are attainable with the way the [economic] situation is today.”
Earlier this year, M/I announced the “eco series” line of smaller-footprint, efficiently designed, economically priced, and ecologically smart homes that will appeal to Millennials and women. “My first goal with these houses was to unclutter the plan,” O’Malley explains. “I start taking out the redundant spaces, and the net result is a floor plan that leaves in the high- value spaces.”
The Novare Group, an Atlanta-based developer of urban mixed-use high-rise condos, attracts young buyers because of its built-in hook (location), but development manager Marc Bramburt says the company still works hard to attract this demographic. “One of the things we do is invest a lot of money in the common areas and in amenities, which include elaborate club rooms and fitness centers,” he says. “Technology is another area where we differentiate ourselves.”
Novare uses an intranet system called HALO that allows residents to, among other things, access HOA information, request assistance from the concierge, or submit maintenance requests. “We also have [Internet-enabled] thermostats, which allow residents to configure their system from the Internet or from a Blackberry,” Bramburt adds.
So what should other builders and developers be doing to attract the coming wave of educated, young buyers? “We’ve been telling builders to go back to the drawing board,” Kannan explains. “The real estate industry is notoriously slow to adapt to change, and we’ve been advising our builder and developer clients that the old models that worked very well for them through the 1980s and 1990s ... are not models that represent the growth in the industry.
“If they haven’t done so already,” Kannan continues, “builders and developers need to get over the pain and suffering of learning to build infill mixed-use.”