With rising fuel costs energy efficiency is essential in a new home

It is very easy to regard affordability simply in terms of headline house prices.  If the average property price was approximatley 6.5 times the average wage in 2007, but is now more like 5.25 times the average wage, then housing must be more affordable?

However, it is not quite as simple as that.  First of all, the cost of mortgages has to be factored in: for example, rising interest rates would be more likely to have an effect on affordability than steadily rising prices.  But increasingly, the affordability of living in a home is being affected by a factor which used not to be regarded as being in the equation at all: energy costs.  With the news last week of yet another supplier imposing a wallet-busting 10.4% price rise, this is something you can't afford to ignore.

Never before has energy efficiency been such a consideration when it comes to working out if you can afford to buy a house.  That is why building regulations for new homes have been considerably tightened in recent years, so that even the most basic new home is more energy efficient that ever before.  Abel Homes are built with triple glazing, solar panels and a whole range of energy-saving features.  It's not just about saving the planet, important though that is, but it is incresingly about balancing the family finances.

So if you are out this weekend looking for a new home, and owndering what you can afford, don't forget to factor in future energy costs into your calculations.  Energy efficiency is no longer a nice-to-have; it's an essential.