Renovate wisely, not lavishly

Might you, and others, consider your investment property to be ‘unique’?

Is so, then either you’ve got a diamond in your investment portfolio or you may need to make a few changes to increase its appeal to a wider tenant pool.

If you are considering putting in the hard yards to improve your investment’s appeal and, in turn, your return on investment, looking at the property’s layout may be a good starting point.

A savvy investor may be right to be cautious of a property with an ‘older’ and possibly less appealing layout. Potential loss of profit due to high tenant turnover could be a consideration.

On the other hand, that layout may present an opportunity for some key renovations which don’t involve a massive kitchen/living/dining knock down and rebuild.

Older homes may not have all the features of modern living, but with some considered alterations, you may be able to enhance some key features to appeal to tenants.

Earlier home design often featured three distinct, sometimes small rooms – kitchen, living and dining. By removing the walls that once separated them, open-plan living design became popular in the ‘90s and has become a pre-requisite of homes’ interiors for a large proportion of the population since.

If your property doesn’t feature this style of living, fear not. There has been growing trend in recent years for the need to separate these spaces once again. It has been coined ‘broken plan design’, where spaces are still made to feel open and connected but are framed as separate zones.

Widening doorways, wall cut-outs as opposed to removal of walls, making unsightly bulkheads a feature, and consistent flooring and styling are just some ways to update older style houses and embrace a more connected lifestyle.

If you want to bring zones back into an open-plan design house, temporary partitioning, furniture placement and flooring can make a big impact with a small budget.

Considering how your tenants will live and use each space is important when planning and embarking on renovations.

So before you pick up the sledge hammer and start knocking out walls, consider the benefits of your property’s original layout and features, and try incorporating it into today’s modern way of living.