Last week, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver posted online an article about emerging home design trends.

These concepts have appeared as a response of COVID-19.

Canadians are transforming their residences where they now spend more time because of the pandemic.

One trend cited in the REBGV post is the increasing popularity of the bidet.

The bidet is a bathroom fixture widely used in Asia and Europe, but not so much in North America.

It does what the toilet paper is used for, which is to clean a person’s bottom with a stream of water.

There are many types of bidets.

The traditional bidet is a stand-alone accessory, where one moves over to for washing.

There are also handheld bidet sprayers.

The specific type cited by the REBGV is the bidet attachment, which is an accessory appended to the toilet seat.

“The bidet toilet attachment has made inroads in the North American market due to the pandemic,” the REBGV post read.

Supply-and-demand can partially help explain why.

“When toilet paper was scarce, these attachments gained popularity as a sanitary alternative,” the REBGV article noted.

There are benefits to using a bidet, and one is to save Mother Earth.

“Using comparably less water than it takes to produce toilet paper, the bidet is also seen as environmentally friendly,” the real estate board’s post explained.

Finally, toilets with “built-in bidets may be more affordable sooner than we think”.

A summary of a global bidet market report available on the site 360researchreports.com indicates that the main markets are located in South Europe, Japan, Korea, and the Americas.

The report projected that the need for bidets will increase from 11.7 million units in 2017 to 18.3 million units in 2023.

Moreover, the worldwide market for bidets is anticipated to grow to US$4.3 billion in 2024 from US$3.3 billion in 2019.

Toiletland Canada notes online that many people think that bidets are expensive, and that they are only for the rich and famous.

"This is simply not true,” it says.

According to the company, bidets are affordable, and come in various makes and models.

Toiletland Canada also cites that 60 percent of homes in Japan and 90 percent of residences in Venezuela and other South American homes have bidets.

The company explains that a bidet not only will make a person’s undercarriage “feel so much fresher and cleaner than just toilet paper or wet wipes”.

It will also make an individual feel good about contributing something to the environment.

“The average American will flush about 57 toilet paper sheets down the drain each day, which then totals more than three million tons of t.p. [toilet paper] every year,” Toiletland Canada states.

Using toilet paper “results in the killing of more than 50,000,000 trees”.

“Add to that the almost four gallons of water required for the manufacturing process of just those 57 sheets and you’ve got a lot of waste,” the company explains.

“On top of that,” Toiletland Canada continues, “the bleaching process that is used in the manufacture of that much toilet paper is also bad for the environment.”

REBGV’s online post on October 29 about emerging home design trends mentions four others: no touch tech, improved indoor air quality, demand for outdoor space, and renovation for home offices.