For the key question on which the company star ratings are based, 91% of respondents said that they would recommend their builder to a friend, consistent with last year’s score and up by 7% in the last five years. The industry achieved a Net Promoter Score of 45 from the survey, up 3 points on last year. Other notable scores include;

• 83% of respondents were satisfied that their home was completed on time, and 89% said they were satisfied with the quality of their home. This is despite the fact that, for much of the time period for this survey, the construction of homes will have been impacted site closures, social distancing and isolation due to the pandemic.
• 85% said they were satisfied with the service provided by the builder during the buying process and 83% said that they were satisfied with the service provided by the builder have they had moved in. Both services would also have been impacted by the pandemic.
• On the design of new build homes, 94% of respondents were satisfied by the internal design of their home, and 88% with the external design.
• 95% of respondents said they had reported snags to their builder since move in, and 72% said the number of snags was in line with or less than what they had expected. The majority of snags will have been minor problems and new build buyers are encouraged to report these to their builder.
• 91% of those surveyed also said they would buy a new build home again, with 87% saying they would buy from their same builder again in the future.

Stewart Baseley, executive chairman of HBF said;

“The survey results show that the industry is increasingly delivering very high levels of customer service. Achieving such high levels of customer satisfaction underlines the commitment of house builders to drive improvements through their businesses that deliver positive customer outcomes. With the imminent introduction of a new industry Consumer Code and a New Homes Ombudsman service, the industry is wholly focussed on making the further necessary changes to ensure it complies with the new demanding requirements. These should see further improvements in customer satisfaction levels moving forward and provide new build buyers with even more confidence in their builder and new home."

“To achieve a 5-star rating whereby over 90% of a builder’s customers would recommend them to a friend demonstrates the commitment of the company to its customers and is a significant achievement.”