Open floor plans, energy-efficient appliances, and smart-home technology top the list of must-haves for today’s new-construction homebuyers, according to Homes.com’s latest survey.
For its New Construction: What Buyers Want Survey, Homes.com partnered with YouGov in May to poll more than 1,000 people age 25-plus who have incomes of at least $50,000 and either purchased a new home in the past two years or plan to buy a newly built property in the next two. See the full methodology.
Open-concept floor plans remain a top priority
When picking their homes, 61% of new construction owners and 59% of new construction intenders said an open-concept floor plan was the most important feature.
Take May Rosenzweig, for example. The 53-year-old nurse practitioner recently decided to build a house in Florida with her husband since both of their kids have left home. When it came to designing their home — which is expected to be completed in August 2026 — space was a priority, Rosenzweig told Homes.com.
"We entertain every year," she said in an interview. "I wanted to get a very nice space for entertainment. My current house has a formal dining room, but when we need to increase to add 20 more people, it's not really conducive."
The solution: an open floor plan that offered a kitchen and dining room that "doesn't have to be just a set room for the dining room."
Marcie DePlaza, chief operating officer at Sunrise, Florida-based homebuilder GL Homes, said the desire for open plans is not a new trend.
“The open floor plan, that’s a little bit like old news, because people have wanted that for a while,” she told Homes.com in an interview. “We got rid of our formal living room and dining rooms a long time ago.”
It’s one of the benefits of buying a new home, according to DePlaza. When you buy a resale, it’s more likely to have a traditional floor plan, but “when you get to build new houses every year, you get to do whatever you want and start from scratch.”
“The newer houses, you walk in, it’s all open and it's high ceilings. It’s great,” she added.
First-time buyers are prioritizing multigenerational homes
While 27% of respondents prioritized multigenerational living, the trend was especially pronounced among first-time buyers, who are increasingly seeking flexible layouts to accommodate returning college students or aging parents.
Unlike the open floor plan, multigenerational living has emerged in the last few years, DePlaza said, noting that GL introduced a new floor plan to accommodate that demand.
“College kids come back home. They don’t have a job that pays enough for them to buy their own place or afford their own place, so they move back home with their parents, and they want their own space,” she explained.
Though demand for those floor plans has seemingly increased, DePlaza said they haven’t become a best seller among GL Homes’ clients.
“It’s been talked about a lot, but personally, I don’t see it selling like hotcakes in any of our communities,” she said.
Energy efficiency and smart-home technology are popular features
Survey respondents showed strong interest in “future-ready” features — especially energy-efficient appliances, smart-home systems, and eco-friendly materials.
Fifty-five percent of respondents said energy-efficient appliances were on their list of most important features, while 50% said they wanted smart-home technology and 37% wanted eco-friendly building materials. Those who said they were intending to buy within the next two years were even more interested in those features, according to the survey.
The push for those kinds of features has increased in recent years, according to Nicole Tysvaer, co-founder and CEO of Kensington, Maryland-based homebuilder Symbi Homes.
“There’s no longer this association of green and bad. We’ve gotten beyond that," she told Homes.com. “People understand that a high-performance home, it’s going to be healthier. It’s going to be more energy efficient. It’s going to be more resilient.”
Tysvaer said she’s also noticed homebuyers are more interested in homes that have features geared toward their own health and hygiene. For example, materials that can reduce mold risks and exposure to certain toxins have become popular.
At GL Homes, there’s also been a push for efficiency, especially when it comes to air conditioning in the Florida heat, DePlaza said.
“In the last five years, we’ve definitely upgraded in that area to make the homes more efficient,” she said.
That's been a welcome shift for Rosenzweig, who is working with GL to build her home. She and her husband prioritized an energy-efficient air-conditioning system to manage Florida’s heat and reduce long-term costs.