Home Owners & Buyers
A home owner’s dream: a home with a future!
- Increase the real estate value of your home
- Improve physical safety for whole family
- Raise energy efficiency and cost saving options
What if you could build or buy a home that could easily and inexpensively be adapted and customized to meet the ever-changing needs of you and your family? Even as you grow through the stages of life from your family to empty-nester to senior citizen?
What if one home could provide a beautiful and functional environment for all people from all walks of life no matter what their physical needs may be? Nice idea you might think …. in fact, a SAFERhome can make that a reality!
The 15-point SAFERhome Universal Design Standards are an easy, inexpensive design overlay solution ready to be applied today! For approximately $500-$1,000 additional building costs, your home will be a step above the others, look more beautiful, and you will tap into a greater home buyers’ market.
- What is a SAFERhome
- What SAFERhome
- Improve your physical safety
- How a SAFERhome saves money
- How you can get a SAFERhome
- Renovating your home: small changes that make a big difference
- Planning for the future and information for seniors
What is a SAFERhome?
SAFERhome provides the only certification program in Canada that addresses the issues of human sustainability, which means you, and the application of a recognized Gold Standard in universal design.
Universal Design is about everyone. It is a way of keeping children safer, a way of more easily having grandma live or visit at home – whether as a guest or because she needs the support, and a way to age-in-place with dignity. Universal Design creates more inclusive communities and supports inter-generational living while looking nicer and being worth more.
Here are some examples – for the entire 15-point list go to 15-point SAFERhome Standards.
Remove thresholds. Ever stumbled when you are carrying groceries, caring for your kids, pushing a baby stroller or just not paying attention? There is no need for thresholds.
Increase the width of your doors by ~4″ (adds only $10/door). Can you feel the space? Movers love it! This is the first thing a builder does to make a home custom. Now when your aging parent comes for a visit he/she can move around with those walking aids without you having to give a helping hand. Imagine you can’t go home to recuperate from a hospital visit because the temporary support you need doesn’t fit through your door and you can’t move around your home. For an extra $10/door during construction you can have all 3-foot wide doors.
Offset bath and shower controls (adds $40). Ever had sore muscles, a backache or use crutches while trying to lean around the toilet and reach into the tub or shower for the controls? It is hard work and a potential accident waiting to happen.
What SAFERhome owners are telling us
“We absolutely love our SAFERhome certified home! Our visitors and family always comment on how spacious it feels, even though the square footage isn’t more than their own homes.
The best part for us is that Grandma can now come and visit easily. She is able to get around with her walking aid and use our bathrooms safely because of the simple design adjustments we made, actually she can go anywhere in the house.
The changes we made were so small that nobody can tell that our home is SAFERhome certified but we certainly feel more at ease and comfortable knowing that it is there.” Anne & Barry Goldberg
Improve your physical safety
A SAFERhome is built for your future! Simply adjust the design and you are ready to build.
By investing in a SAFERhome today, you are increasing the value of your investment tomorrow. By 2032, 48% of Canadian will be over the age of 65 and will have specific housing needs. These are addressed by a SAFERhome. This increased consumer demand translates to greater real estate profit for the SAFERhome owner.
As your physical needs change, so does your lifestyle within your home. A SAFERhome has the built-in ability to support those needs. From toddler to senior, a SAFERhome provides a better standard of living.
About one in three people over the age 65 will fall at home this year in BC. A home that is SAFER certified reduces the risk of falling in the home.
How a SAFERhome saves money
- Cost savings when the SAFERhome program is included in the initial construction upfront vs. retro-fitting. Save up to $100,000! See more details on 15-point SAFERhome Standards.
- Save on energy costs. A SAFERhome is smart-ready for your improved energy efficient electrical options.
How can you get a SAFERhome
Remember, it is easy and inexpensive!
- Include in any Real Estate Interim Agreement for a new home or condo the subject clause “subject to written proof of successful SAFERhome certification”.
Insist that your real estate agent or builder/contractor/developer includes this clause in all contracts. Don’t let them tell you otherwise, all 15-points are within the current building code and require no special permit or provisions. - Be pro-active, order our SAFERhome manual (free with membership) AND Contact us your home order. With Contact us you can take advantage of our technical support.
- Contact us with any questions. We are here to help!
Renovating your home: small changes that make a big difference
- Order our SAFERhome manual (free with membership).
- Contact us to discuss how your home can integrate SAFERhome Standards.
- Contact us your home to take advantage of our technical support.
Ask us how to get started with a SAFERhome today.
