The Burrow
Jan 23, 2023
Smart home technology has exploded onto the scene over the last five years and is showing no sign of stopping. According to Statista, the number of Australian households equipped with smart technology is expected to reach a staggering 9.2 million by 2027,1 and a huge 672.6 million users globally.2
With smart homes referring to any technology that can be controlled through a smartphone or computer – think heating, lighting, and security cameras, in addition to a whole host of appliances – we wanted to see where in the world has seen the largest uptake in smart home technology. As experts in home and contents insurance, we also wanted to demonstrate how smart security appliances could be useful if you ever have to make a claim for theft or damage to your home.
To gather our list of countries, we turned to Zoopla to identify which had the greatest number of listings, before narrowing them down via various features, including the mention of the words “smart”, “automated”, “security” and more.
So, read on to discover where you can find the most (and least!) technologically-advanced homes globally, and see how your home country compares.
Kicking off our list is Türkiye, with a total index score of 2.582. 5.17% of properties were listed as “smart” (128 in total), and 31.5% had security features listed, too.
Hungary has made it into a very respectable second place, with a score of 2.368. 5.09% of homes were listed as smart, as well as one in ten fitted with alarms.
South Africa, Belgium, and Australia round off the top five, with South Africa scoring highly for automated houses at 4.49%, which is just a similar term for smart homes; and Australia scoring highly for security listings at 71,779, which equates to just over 40%.
If we look purely at the percentage of smart home listings, then it’s Austria that comes out on top, with 5.33% of listings labelled this way. They’re followed by Türkiye and Hungary – the only three countries on the list to score 5% or more.
However, alongside South Africa, the term “automated homes” is more common in Zimbabwe, and Belgium, which scored 3.7% and 3.45% respectively.
However, despite these countries having a high proportion of automated properties, it’s Belgium, Ireland, and South Africa that have the highest percentage of properties with alarms; and Türkiye, Egypt, and Hungary lead the way with properties that have cameras.
If we look at the other end of the spectrum, then the Cayman Islands has scored the lowest, with an index score of 0.051, with no homes listed as smart or automated. Only three of their properties were listed as having security (4.5%), and there were no listings that had an alarm or camera.
Cape Verde (0.101), Switzerland (0.134), Brazil (0.142), and Gibraltar (0.177) complete the bottom five.
Fiji was the only country on our list to not have any property listings with security features, whereas the Netherlands and Austria only had one each. There were also 13 countries that didn’t have any properties with alarms – although quite a few of these were island countries, including Fiji, the Cayman Islands, and Cape Verde.
Camera listings are even less popular, with 26 countries not having any, including Zimbabwe, Mexico, and Brazil.
With the rise of smart home technology around the world becoming increasingly evident, Compare the Market’s General Manager for General Insurance Adrian Taylor states: “Being able to automate your home and having interconnectivity is something homeowners are really beginning to prioritise more and more, because not only can it increase the value of your home, but it can make your life easier too.
“Now, not only do you have the ability to control the temperature of your home whilst you’re out and about, but you can do everything from recording your favourite TV series, to seeing if there’s anyone standing outside your front door.
“As well as this, things such as smart home security and cameras can be useful if you ever need to make a claim on your home and contents insurance policy for theft or damage to your property. Some insurers may also offer a discount if you have certain features, such as external alarms or biometric locks.
“We recommend that you check the product Disclosure Statement of a policy before purchasing, so that you are aware of any exclusions, restrictions and limits, but also to help you understand exactly what your policy covers you for.”
To compare various policies within Australia, use Compare the Market’s free home and contents insurance comparison tool.
This ranking looks at the top 49 countries with the most Zoopla property listings, and Australia, to make a total of 50 countries. These countries were searched on property websites to find the total number of property listings. Five search terms relating to smart homes were then searched for each country. The percentage of listings containing the below search terms was then calculated for each country, and then indexed so that a high percentage would give a high score, and a low percentage would give a low score:
The scores were then summed to give a total out of 5 and the countries were ranked with the highest score being ranked highest. All data correct as of 21/12/2022.
The full dataset can be viewed here.