Homes

WHAT'S NEXT?: The number of smart homes is expected to grow further and by 2020 it is expected 46.2 million homes in the US and 44.9 million in Europe will be classed as smart homes. By 2022 there could be nearly 500 smart devices that can be connected to a smart home.

[New] A four year national retrofit programme could boost economic activity by £27.96 billion, create an average of 515,000 new jobs between 2020 and 2024, and cut emissions from UK's homes by 21% from a 2019 baseline.
[New] Australia will spend A$ 1.66 billion ($1.19 billion) over the next 10 years to strengthen the cyber defenses of companies and households after a rise in cyber attacks.
[New] The needs of the U.S. economy go beyond people with Ph.D.'s, pointing to home health aides, nurses and other jobs projected to grow in the coming years.
[New] In the UAE, 59% of respondents expect the value of their home to fall in the second half of 2020; 84% of respondents who are renters expect to see their rent decline.
[New] Australian residential approvals are down nearly 16% over the year, with Commonwealth Bank economists expecting housing construction to fall by 25% in 2020.
[New] Ireland will be home to at least one million more people in the next 20 years, requiring substantial economic and social infrastructure.
[New] The size of the global smart home market will grow from USD 78.3 billion in 2020 to USD 135.3 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 11.6% over the five-year period.
[New] Given household income of $63,251, median real estate prices at $759,000, as well as mortgage and tax rates, a family in Oakland should expect to pay $3,644 per month, or 69.13% of income, toward housing costs.
[New] Ecommerce witnessed the strongest growth amongst all channels, suggesting that Indian consumers are beginning to prefer shopping from home compared to visiting markets, a trend which will only increase due to Covid-19.
[New] The Association for Decentralised Energy points out that by 2050 around 80% of the UK's population will be living in housing that already exists today.
[New] Urban areas are already home to more than half of the global population, and the UN predicts that number will likely increase to 60% by 2030.
[New] Risk management authorities, working with local partners, will have invested £2.6 billion of UK government funding in flood and coastal risk management, better protecting 300,000 homes between 2015 and 2021 (Environment Agency, 2019m).
Absent new legislation, more than 20% of Black and Hispanic people in households where job loss occurred are predicted to be in poverty from August until the end of the year.
As working from home becomes increasingly normal, Microsoft expects that in five years, 149 million jobs will be created around the world in areas such as data analysis.
To provide equivalent household electricity for a global population of 9 billion by 2050 would require something like half a million offshore wind turbines - a 100-fold increase on the current number-plus the extra capacity to provide electricity for future energy demand.
Around 17M homes could be fed by hydrogen in 2050, implying an average of over 850,000 home conversions every year for two decades.
238 million households will need to gain electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and island nations by 2030 to achieve universal electricity access.
As Lyft's home state of California faces a resurgence of Covid-19, drivers' concerns are expected to intensify as more people stay home and drivers get less business - especially as the $ 600-a-week pandemic unemployment stipend the US government is providing is about to expire.
At least 12 million homes in England need to be fitted with heat pumps and new energy efficiency measures, if the UK is to meet its net zero targets by 2050, and lift thousands of households out of fuel poverty.
The UK Government has committed to require new build homes to be net zero carbon by 2025 and get as many homes as possible to Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) Band C by 2035.
A minimum of 12 million homes in England alone will need to be fitted with energy efficient heat pumps, insulation and other measures between now and 2050.
The UK Government has been urged to implement a Home Improvement Plan to facilitate more than £5bn in annual spending to improve the energy efficiency of the UK's housing stock to contribute to the net-zero target for 2050.
House Democrats on Tuesday released a sweeping proposal to address the climate crisis that calls for the U.S. to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, in large part through decarbonizing the electric and transportation sectors.

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Last updated: 15 August 2020