Germán Molina

Making indoor ‘comfort’ a selling point in the housing market.

Germán’s research aims to bridge the gap between building science and real estate research, and frame indoor environmental quality such as thermal, visual and acoustic comfort as an attribute of housing that can be used as a selling point.

“Housing directly affects people’s quality of life,” says Germán. “Apart from the well-known economic and financial aspects, it plays an important role in their physical and mental wellbeing. Furthermore, when homes are not comfortable, people tend to solve the problem through appliances (e.g. heaters, HVAC systems, artificial lighting, and dehumidifiers) that affect the environment. Making indoor environmental quality relevant in the housing market would encourage developers, architects and investors to improve the quality of housing, improving people’s lives and reducing the impact of the residential sector on the environment.”

He was awarded the Pacific Rim Real Estate Society (PRRES) Postgraduate Research Scholarship for his paper “How can we make indoor environmental quality relevant in the housing market?” at their 2020 conference in Canberra.

Supervisors

Dr Michael Donn from the School of Architecture, Dr Micael-Lee Johnstone from the School of Marketing and International Business and Dr Casimir MacGregor, Senior Social Scientist from the Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ).