To knock down or renovate?

Marina from The School of Renovating has a few tips to help you weigh up your options on whether to renovate or start again.

Consider:

Weighing up the costs

If you’re planning an extensive renovation with a lot of structural changes, it might be cheaper to start from scratch. One potential upside of building a new home is you may be able to enter a ‘fixed price’ contract with a builder.

The age of the home

If you’ve purchased a character home because you love the old timber floors and decorative ceilings, renovating may be the better way to go, even if it costs more. Alternatively, if your house is an ‘ugly duckling’, it might make more sense for you to knock it down.

Location

Knocking down and rebuilding may make more sense in areas where there is less risk of over-capitalising, for example, areas close to the city, beach or bay.

Lifestyle

Rather than trying to fix an unworkable floor plan by extending or raising an existing house, it can be easier and cheaper to start with a clean slate. Rebuilding allows people to choose a new home design to suit their needs, rather than trying to modernise an older home.

Is renovating too much hassle?

If you work full-time or are raising a family, you need to ask yourself whether you really want to spend every weekend working on the house. Renovating can be very disruptive, and you may not be able to live in your home while you renovate it. On the other hand, new homes can be built to ‘turn key’ stage, where all you need to do is turn the key, walk in and enjoy.

Enquire about a competitive IMB Bank Personal Loan to make home improvements