Whether you’ve been enticed by a refinancing option with a low interest rate or you just feel like sprucing up your house or investment property, your list of renovation options can begin to grow.
It’s often a great idea to look at renovations that may add to the value of your home and increase liveability. Here are a couple of ideas if you don’t know where to start.
Kitchen
Often the staple of where the magic happens, upgrades to your kitchen are the biggest value adding renos you can look at and can often be recouped dollar for dollar in terms of resale value. Remodelling a kitchen can cost between $5k to Kardashian Dollars, so it’s important to be realistic when renovating the kitchen in comparison to the value of your home.
Don’t go overboard, you don’t want a kitchen built for the Jetsons if it doesn’t match the rest of your house. There are modular flat pack kits which you can put in a DIY job to save money on the installation, however, be honest with yourself around your prowess. If you’re not a confident builder you may do more harm than good.
Bathroom
Similar to the kitchen, a bathroom tends to be on the pricier end of the renovation scale on account of the plumbing and fixtures. When it comes to bang for your buck (and the subsequent increase in value to your home) keep existing plumbing and look to swap out the existing bathtub, sinks, fittings, etc., and perhaps, if it was built several decades ago, a re-tiling.
If your house only has the one bathroom, you may even consider the option of renovating a small room or annexing part of the laundry to pop in a second, smaller bathroom.
Energy Efficient Upgrades
They may not fall into the standard bucket of home renovations, but upgrades to make your house more energy efficient are both vogue and practical. The list can be long in this category of renovations from projects big, such as installing active solar heating systems and structural changes to increase air-flow, to smaller additions like window glazing and insulation.
The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) looks to apply a star rating to residential houses to help compare what’s effectively an energy rating to a house. Different upgrades may impact that rating which could reduce energy bills, impact resale value, as well as reduce your carbon footprint, overall adding value to your home. You can check out a few ideas and links to the scheme here.
Don’t Forget a Lick of Paint
When thinking renovations, we often reach for the stars and think about nagging holes and replacing fixtures. A fresh coat of paint, perhaps in modern colours, can seriously revitalise a house on both the interior and exterior.
Painting is absolutely one of the more DIY friendly jobs, but if it’s your first time rolling out the roller, have a chat to your local hardware and paint store to make sure you know what you’re signing on for.
At the end of the day, value adds can be important when it comes to investment properties and their rental yield and resale value. However, if it’s the family home, don’t forget that your wants and desires are just as valuable, so don’t feel guilty if it’s an entertainment room or a hobby shop which ends up winning out!
Disclaimer: The ideas, discussions, options and details expressed in SCCU Blogs are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific personal advice or recommendations for any individual or on any specific security or investment product. We intended only to provide education about the financial and banking industry to make the complex simple, and help everyday customers realise their dreams.
