The COVID-19 renovation frenzy is set to continue throughout 2022 as property prices continue to climb and home owners decide to use some of their extra equity to finance improvements.
With the memory of successive lockdowns still burning, many more are now deciding to draw up plans to make their houses and apartments more comfortable in case they’re ever stuck inside for long periods again.
“Our forecast is that the level of renovations will actually remain elevated,” said Nick Ward, senior economist at the Housing Industry Association. “The two main drivers of this are the lockdowns that have prompted households to upgrade the value they put on their home space, and the increase they’ve seen in their homes’ worth.
“As dwelling prices have risen, they realise they have more money available for renovations, and especially when overseas travel is still difficult and won’t return for a while. As a result, people are borrowing against the value of their homes, and loans for renovations have increased over the last 12 months.”
On Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, over the 12 months to October 2021 an astonishing $11.82 billion worth of renovation approvals were given around Australia. The vast majority of these were in NSW and Victoria – the states hardest hit by the pandemic lockdowns – with Queensland next and Western Australia following.
This October alone saw $960,307 million of approvals for renovations, the first time the monthly figure has slipped below the billion-dollar mark since January 2021.
Around the country, renovation approvals in October in NSW totalled $335,684 million; in Victoria $334,461 million; in Queensland $169,505 million; Western Australia $53,149 million; South Australia $40,037 million; Tasmania $14,007 million; the Northern Territory $7760 million; and the ACT $5701 million.
Archicentre Australia director Peter Georgiev said that’s little surprise. “We’ve seen a lot of people now working from home and they’re greatly annoyed at their home circumstances,” he said. “That’s especially true when there’s a family at home and the parents have been trying to juggle work with children, so that provides a degree of impetus for home improvements.
“They want to create spaces for home offices and they want the flexibility to use spaces at home for various uses, like an office during the day and for teens to hang out with their friends in the evening. That won’t be changing any time soon. People are now in the mindset to improve their homes.”
While a number of people moved home last year to find bigger spaces, or opted for tree and sea changes, the vast majority preferred to stay put and work out how they could make better use of what they had.
The costs of moving home, plus stamp duty and agents’ fees, made many decide that money could be put to better use with renovations, says Belinda Botzolis, senior property strategist at Metropole Property Strategists.
Then there were the grants that many states offered owners during the pandemic.
“We’ve just had the biggest year for renovations ever, but it will still continue into the future,” she said. “It’s been so hard to get tradies to finish jobs, so there’ll be a lot of demand for them into 2022 too.
“Lockdowns often slowed the momentum down but they did make us realise how small our homes were, and how we really needed offices rather than study nooks, and wanted kitchens with more space, and indoor-outdoor entertaining. Instagram helped, with all the images of homes we wished we had. And since we’ll still be going nowhere in 2022, we’ll still be renovating.”
Kitchens and bathrooms and a change of flooring are still at the top of most renovators’ lists, but those lists are growing all the time, according to renovations expert Werine Erasmus of The Happy Renovator.
“After those, people are looking to create home offices or spaces to work or study from any spare space within the home,” she said. “Everyone wants a place to be quiet and work now, and the trend for renovations is going to go on and on.
“Then, if there’s any cash left over, they want to build a deck and add lighting and smart features like custom garage doors. But we find those are always secondary to the kitchens and bathrooms and flooring.”
With the return of first-home buyers to the property market, many of those are now also joining the renovation obsession, albeit at a lower value level, Ms Erasmus believes. Many of those may have over committed on large mortgages so don’t have much cash left to splash.
“So [they] are still doing renovations, but all DIY,” she said. “They’re going for the real budget options, but there’s still a lot they can achieve. For instance, instead of changing the flooring on a concrete patio, the other day I put down a stencil. It cost $30 and it looks amazing!”
Older people are now also entering the fray, Mr Georgiev believes. With all the publicity about COVID-19 outbreaks in aged care homes, and the revelations of poor conditions, he has seen a lot of them now renovating their houses and apartments in order to make them more suitable for staying in longer.
“They’re thinking, ‘Bugger this, I’m not going into one of those hell holes’,” said Mr Georgiev. “So they decide instead to cobble together changes in their own homes, like a better fit-out, so they can continue to live there. We’ll be seeing a lot of that into the future, too.”
Article Source: www.brisbanetimes.com.au
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