The psychology of colour in property sales

When selling a property, it’s often said that a neutral backdrop is best, helping to create feelings of spaciousness and providing the blank canvas that buyers are after. But increasingly the psychology of colour is coming into play in grabbing attention. This means that how your colour choices impact buyer perception of your property could be the difference as to whether you snare that offer or not.

How colour impacts mood and perception

Colour is effective in a potential buyer’s perception of your property because of its direct impact on moods and emotions. Colours are split into warm tones that help to energise when you enter a room and cool tones that help you unwind.

Part of the power of colour is our emotional associations with them, some of which are obvious. In a 2020 study of more than 4,000 people across 30 different countries, for example, more than two-thirds (68%) associated red with love (think love hearts and Valentine’s) while more than half (51%) associated black with sadness (the traditional colour of mourning, at least here in the UK).

The use of colour as therapy

Colours are also used in therapy, a practice known as colorology or chromotherapy. Red is used to energise and invigorate, blue to calm and green to relieve stress and relax. Again, many of these can be related to the associations they provoke – for example, yellow (the colour of the sun) is said to improve mood and happiness while the green of nature and the blue of the sea provide an obvious association with relaxation.

Matching colours to rooms

Incorporating these colours into your property when you are looking to sell can help evoke positive feelings and associations that could clinch a deal. But what colours should you choose? The calming effect of blue can make it a great choice for many rooms, including the bedroom, with people catching the most zzzs in a room painted blue. Its anxiety-reducing impact can also make blue a soothing colour for rooms such as studies or offices.

By contrast, brighter colours, such as red which stimulates mind and body (and therefore also appetite), can be a great choice for a kitchen or dining room.

How far should you go?

Furniture retailer Wayfair’s latest TV ad campaign Escape the Catalogue debuted in July and calls time on the ‘age of Greige and samey interiors’ by highlighting a couple trapped in a bland environment of whites and greys. Instead, the couple manage to escape to a environment that’s rich in colour throughout – including walls and furniture. The impact is dramatic, and a great reminder of how attention-grabbing colour can be.

But you don’t have to take a paintbrush to everything. Simply incorporating a few bold statements, such as a brightly painted front door or letterbox, a high-impact feature wall or brightly-coloured furniture or throws could prove effective in helping your property stand out from the crowd and get you the sale you are seeking.