Homeowners Underestimating The Cost Of Renovation
If you own a home, then there is a very strong chance that at one point or another you’ve considered making some renovations.
While decorating a room can be relatively cheap and straightforward, it appears that homeowners in the UK are underestimating the cost of some of the larger scale changes to a home.
Direct Line Home Insurance’s latest research investigated just how much people spend on house renovations and how much they are overspending.
According to the data, almost 1 in 4 homeowners spent more than they planned or intended on a change to their home and as a collective across the last 5 years, home extensions and upgrades have cost an extra £3.4 billion.
On average, each renovation cost £7,427 (278%) more than the owner thought it would when planning their original budget.
It was revealed that the younger demographic were the most likely to be caught out by unexpected costs, 30% of 18 to 34 years olds end up going over budget. In comparison to those aged over 55, this figure is almost half at 17% with Direct Line suggesting that this age group could have much higher aspirations for their home.
Regionally, it appears that property owners in the capital top the list for misjudging a budget, starting a project with an average budget of £6,278 but paying out £11,128.
The most commonly renovated room within the first year of purchasing a home was the kitchen (32%) followed by the bathroom (29%) and the living room (17%).
The living room is the most popular area of the home when it comes to redecorating (43%) with the bedroom (42%) not too far behind and the hallway taking 3rd place (35%).
Head of Home Insurance – Dan Simson – spoke on the finding of the research, he said; “Many home renovation shows have given people a false impression of the real cost of remodelling a property, so before you bite off more than you can chew it’s important to research and price the work accurately, building contingency costs in to the budget, to ensure your home improvements come in on time and meet your expectations”.
