Smart Homes: What Millennials want in a home

The majority of young people born between 1980 and the mid 1990s are the largest generation in Kenya. It is often thought that these young people, who are now at the beginning of their careers, are most keen to enjoying the best life and always look forward to rent a cool apartment or owning a modern home. They value living in environments that are conducive to creativity and encourage productivity.

While homeowners of the past hoped to purchase new or newly remodeled homes, Millenials are least likely to build their own home, opting to buy or rent a house they can repair and improve on their own, incorporating their personal preferences into the home’s design.

They already have a good idea of what they want for their homes, so when they start to buy home appliances, they will demand certain features to match their desired lifestyles, thanks to the Smart home concept.

Despite the increased cost of such smart devices and services, young people are more likely to view smart electronics as a good home investment for the long term while identifying the kitchen, laundry room and living room as areas that would benefit most from smart technology.

Smart and Secure

Smart technology such as indoor and outdoor lighting makes the homes safer and more enjoyable and are also more energy efficient.

Young people value technology and prefer tech-friendly homes that play a vital role in their lifestyles. The new generation of homeowners is setting the pace for utilizing new technology in homes such as making tasks like running a load in the washing machine and lowering the temperature of the air conditioner from a smartphone..

Emerging devices such as Samsung’s app make intelligent living possible, allowing users to easily customize the home to one’s personal preferences, another important determinant of millennial home buying.

Purposeful Places and Spaces

Among these customization projects is the desire to make each room serve a purpose fit for the homeowner’s lifestyle. For instance most young people are straying from jobs with traditional eight hours system and instead choosing to start their own businesses and side projects.

They want their living spaces to be places to do work, rather than places to go after work, and are transforming less frequently used rooms such as the dining room into their home offices.

For such demographics, large spaces and entertainment pastimes like movies and sport viewing on Smart TVs are the satisfactory remedy for their needs for immediacy and seamless social media access during their favorite programs and sports events.

While previous generations counted calories, young people focus more on food that is fresh, less processed and have fewer artificial ingredients, as evidenced by their preference for specialty grocers and farmers’ markets.

Their passion for local, sustainably grown produce has created a movement in urban gardening and a collective passion for state of the art refrigerators to store food. Some of the special features of the refrigerator include a triple cooling technology where you can control the temperature of three different zones of the refrigerator separately, the fridge-in-freezer compartment which can be converted from a refrigerator to a freezer, the Chefs Pantry a specific compartment that allows items like red meat and fish to be chilled at -1 degree and the stainless steel Chefs Tray, that can be used for marinating meat and seafood and can be directly pulled out of the refrigerator and placed into the oven.

The refrigerator, has been designed with these needs in mind, utilizing temperature control features to keep food fresher longer. Likewise, the collection’s microwave includes a quick-access commercial grade filter that captures 56 percent more oil than traditional filters. Appliances like these that cater to the healthier lifestyles of these foodies will be of upmost importance.

Energy Efficiency for Long-Term Savings

With a more eco-conscious generation, Millennials see the importance in saving energy, both to do their part to help the environment, as well as save money and reduce expenses, and are willing to pay a bit more for energy efficient appliances.

Young people are willing to pay more for such devices, so long as there is a long-term cost savings attached to their purchases. Appliances like air conditioning unit which has a smart inverter technology will help you saving some serious green.

One can set a smart thermostat or portable heating/cooling unit to adjust to a certain level whenever different events take place – such as when you leave home. And to make sure that you always step back in to a comfortable crib, you can also adjust your home’s temperature from your phone whenever you want it like.