Think of the colour red. Stop lights, warnings, danger, and avoidance. Maybe you think the interest on your variable home loan is too high and you’re seeing red, about to go berserk. The psychology of colour has a wide-ranging number of implications – your property included.
Red versus blue
There’s plenty of research on how we view colour and how we react to it, but of particular note for property is a study conducted by the University of British Columbia (UBC). In this study, the researchers tested hundreds of participants on several cognitive tasks, all the while exposing them to either blue environmental cues or red ones. The tasks ranged from creative tasks to those that required attention to detail and enhanced memory retrieval.
The results were surprising. While it has been known for a while in the scientific community that colour affects cognitive tasks, it was unknown whether it was blue or red that improved cognition.
Red was shown to improve attention to detail and memory, while blue enhanced creativity and ‘thinking outside the box’.
So what does that mean for property?
It may seem like a purely academic study with no practical application, but there are lessons to be learned for your property. Juliet Zhu from UBC’s Business School described how these results could be due to colour associations. Red implies danger, so people pay more attention, while blue reminds us of things like the sea, so we relax and become creative.
So if you don’t want to scare off your potential buyers, don’t overdo the red. If you’re repainting the home office, consider a nice blue for a bit of creativity. Reader’s Digest agrees, describing red as creating an aggressive atmosphere when overused, but providing security when painted into accents. Interior design isn’t just about creating a nice look; it can affect the very way you live.
For more information on how to improve your real estate value, or just to find the right home loan, speak to us today.