Forget the old rules about adding value to your property. Here’s what works now

There are myriad reasons for renovating a property. Traditionally for families, making more space for children rates highly. For others, it’s often about updating a residence for contemporary living.

With property representing their major investment, most home owners are concerned about return on their renovating dollar. Ray White chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the key was appealing to as many buyers as possible.

“Every neighbourhood has a price limit,” she said. “Spending $500,000 renovating a home in a street where properties typically sell for $500,000 is unlikely to double its value.”

While extra bedrooms or a showstopping kitchen still appeal to buyers, what people want is evolving, with long-term cost-saving features such as solar panels and batteries leading the way. Above all, said senior sales agent at McGrath Manly, Kirsten Bertram, finished properties are attractive in today’s market.

“The cost of building is high – materials are costly, trades are costly,” she said. “The properties that are successful are the turnkey properties done to a high-quality finish.”

Here is the experts’ guide to renovate to adding value.

Solar panels

Whether it’s about sustainability – or the health of the hip pocket – the wonders of renewable energy are winning over buyers in a way they weren’t even a few years ago. Experts agree it is now money well spent.

“The buyer will know what their [energy] bills are and the capital [to install panels] has already been spent,” said David Wood, Melbourne-based sales agent and auctioneer at Belle Property Albert Park.

Ray White Upper North Shore sales agent Jessica Cao in Sydney said solar panels were increasingly popular with buyers.

“Seven or eight years ago, if vendors said they had solar panels, buyers didn’t care, but now if you have solar panels and [storage] batteries, that’s a plus,” she said. “More people have electric cars, electricity is expensive, and if you have solar panels that cost is offset.”

A standard 6.6 kilowatt system can cost between $5000 and $10,000, including government incentives, while research by PRD Real Estate in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany and other key industry partners found that homes with sustainable features attracted a 10 per cent premium.

Indoor/outdoor flow

If we learnt anything from COVID, it’s the importance of outdoor space. It has a positive effect on mental health, whether you’re in the garden or viewing it from inside the house.

Melbourne-based architect Matt Gibson said that opening a floor plan to the garden or courtyard via bi-fold or sliding doors extended views. More restricted floor plans such as those of many terrace houses also have options, via internal courtyards.

“It provides flexibility and adds light and air into a building,” Gibson said. “You need to think about the architecture and landscape at the same time.”

Sales agents agreed that buyers value gardens but said you don’t necessarily need to spend big on landscaping.

“Of course it adds value, but as long as you have good privacy or a flat grassed area and some paving, that’s probably enough for the landscaping,” Cao said.

Norman Tran, of Sydney-based Adrian William Real Estate, said buyers love gardens, as long as they don’t create too much work for them.

“The majority of buyers will appreciate low-maintenance gardens, whether that is level lawn and easy-to-maintain garden beds,” he said. “That’s always preferred because most buyers have busy lives.”

Before you invest in a pool, do a little research on your area, Wood said.

“Swimming pools can sometimes get it wrong if it feels forced and you have a plunge pool there because you could,” he said. “You might have been better to keep it as an open space.”

Open-plan living

Open-plan living has been through a reckoning of sorts since COVID, when everyone was at home together all the time. However, opening up your floor plan, especially in older homes, can enhance buyer appeal.

Tran sells a lot of heritage homes in Sydney’s inner west and says that while buyers value original features, open plan is still highly desirable.

“The most successful properties are those with a more contemporary layout suited to families, with bathrooms and en suites in the middle of the homes and open-plan living to the rear,” he said.

However, Sydney architect Georgia McGowan said open-plan design was evolving.

“People are looking for flexibility and multipurpose spaces that they can shut down and open up. Those small, sometimes subtle moves improve functionality.”

Powder rooms

Buyers love a little “a-ha” moment on inspection, and a carefully designed powder room could be a more cost-effective option than upgrading a larger bathroom.

“It’s a smaller space, but it is also a presentation piece,” Gibson said. “It can be beautifully fitted out as a cocooning, private space that has a feel of luxury to it. It’s not a huge layout of money, but it really adds to the value and personality of the house.”

Think bold wallpaper, statement basins and mirrors as well as luxe materials such as marble.

Bathrooms and en suites

This one is more dependent on the market you’re in. For Cao’s north shore buyers who are in the market for large family homes, every bedroom needs an en suite.

“Five bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms is not considered enough,” Cao said. “Buyers will say the room size is great but the bedrooms are sharing a bathroom.”

If the budget doesn’t stretch to renovating all your bathrooms, interior designer James Treble said you should prioritise.

“If there are multiple bathrooms, I would do the en suite because it will sell the house, or the bathroom that is most visible,” he said. “You can’t do everything.”

One more thing ...

First impressions still count, Wood said.

“If you look at a lot of two-storey terraces and one is painted ’80s lime green, it instantly dates the whole thing. When you put the house online, that’s the photo that people will see. You need to ask: will they stay and engage with it?”