Love your Brisbane home and don’t want the hassle of moving? Australians are getting the itch back to renovate, with a growing number looking to refurbish their existing homes rather than relocate.
New results from St George Bank show Gen Ys are the hungriest when it comes to revamping their homes this spring – nearly two-thirds of 18 to 25-year-olds plan on renovating their home in the next 12 months.
And the younger generations are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and do some of the dirty work – 68 per cent plan to take on do-it-yourself renovation programs with the help of family and friends.
St George Bank general manager of retail banking Andy Fell says the renovation urge has returned,.
Homeowners are looking to upgrade their kitchen and bathroom areas, and says it’s an extension to the long-running Australian dream of home ownership.
“If you can’t move to upgrade your property, you are going to spend some time investing in what you have and I think that’s why you’ve got so many people thinking about renovating,” he says.
Thirty-four per cent (of Gen Ys) have already saved enough to do the renovation. Others are looking to family members, including their parents, to support them in the renovation.
“Then there’s a third group who look for finance as either an extension on their home loan or an unsecured personal loan.”
The survey of 1000 Australians found Gen Ys are more frugal when it comes to splashing out on renovations than their Gen X counterparts.
Three-quarters of those aged under 34 (76 per cent) plan to spend less than $10,000 on a home renovation; compared to one-fifth of Gen Xers (20 per cent), who intend on forking out more than $20,000 to upgrade their property.
Plumber Paul Whitfield says the past 12 months have been slow for the construction industry but aspiring renovators are gradually coming back to the market and now looking to get cracking on their renovation plans.
“Business did slow down prior to the election and I was quoting jobs for people looking to renovate. But just to spend $2000 or $3000, people weren’t going ahead with jobs like that because they were waiting to see which Government was going to be elected,” he says.
“But in the last few weeks, we’ve had people come to us who had jobs quoted months ago and they’re now going ahead with it.”
1300HomeLoan managing director John Kolenda says recent increased consumer confidence has helped to lift the mood of Australians looking to spend more money on their homes.
“It’s a better option for people to look at renovating and adding value to their property if they are content to live in that area,” he says.
“With the market on the rise, they are creating value for themselves and improving the overall value of the property.
“Over the last few years, people have been reverting to renovating their property, rather than moving, because there are inherent costs with moving like selling costs and stamp duty costs.”
Original article published at www.news.com.au by Sophie Elsworth, News Limited 11/10/2013