When it comes to a renovating job around the house, 91% of Australian homeowners have a budget in mind, with 79% tending to blow their budgets, findings from a new survey have found.
The national survey of Australian homeowners from tradie marketplace, hipages, titled ‘Know Your Budget Research Overview’ found with the cost of living at an all-time high, finances were a huge factor in repair jobs and home renovations.
The survey also revealed only 6% of 800 respondents said their budget expectations were correct, and less than a fifth of homeowners (16%) spoke to an expert/ tradie to help with their budget.
Furthermore, most homeowners surveyed agreed a quote from a tradie was often more expensive than their original budget, and half of the respondents said they underestimated it by up to 20%.
Expert renovators, former The Block contestants Kara and Kyal Demmrich, who have completed countless projects since competing on The Block: Fans v Faves in 2014, say doing your research ahead of embarking on any renovation project was vital.
![](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 800 450"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Former The Block contestants Kara and Kyal Demmrich. Picture: Supplied
“If you do your research and look at how much things are going to cost, then the likeliness of you going over budget is significantly decreased,” Kyal told realestate.com.au
“Because a lot of people get into these situations with an estimate based off their figures from maybe six years ago, or word of mouth and they pretty much underscore their estimate by about 20%, which no one wants.”
Kitchen and bathroom renovation projects tended to cause the biggest budget expectation blowout surprises, Kara said.
“I guess that is down to the fact that there are so many trades involved in those renovations,” she said.
“And I guess the thing is, particularly after the year that we’ve had, and people have been watching their pennies, is people often rely on older quotes that they had for a year or two ago.
“That’s why platforms such as hipages are just so valuable, because you can jump on there and get three up to date quotes.”
The Block’s Kyal and Kara Demmrich. Picture: Supplied
A shortage of trades, coupled with the rising costs of building materials, and high demand were major factors in the rising costs of home renovations, Kyal said.
“And it’s no wonder that people are so surprised, we do this for a living and our last project went over budget because same thing, the cost of trades has gone up, the cost of materials has gone up, you know, it’s hard to keep up to date,” Kara said.
Having a realistic expectation of the timeframe a renovation project will take was also essential, and Kyal said allowing a 10% buffer in time and budget was wise.
“If you think it’s going to be ten days, give yourself an extra day or two,” he said.
“But what we find that is hugely important, especially when you go to do a bathroom as there’s so many little moving parts, is have everything on site ready to go as far as your tapware, your toilet… have it all ordered sitting in the garage, so that when your trades do come in, they’ve got the technical spreadsheets there to work out where everything has got to go.”
And unlike The Block’s weekly renovation projects, completing a bathroom overhaul in seven days was unrealistic.
Former The Block contestants Kyal and Kara Demmrich. Picture: Supplied
“What people don’t understand is there are literally tradies working around the clock on The Block,” Kyal said.
“We did The Block 10 years ago – I can’t believe it’s been 10 years – and in that 10 years I can’t even count the number of kitchens and bathrooms we’ve done, and we never been able to do them in a week since then,” Kara said.
“And that’s how unbelievably powerful ‘The Block machine’ is – it’s not realistic.”
With many Australians about to embark on Christmas holidays and may start to think about tackling a kitchen or bathroom renovation, securing a trade during the silly season was now out of reach, the pair said.
But that was not to say starting a renovation job over the holidays was unrealistic, they said, and suggested choosing a project you could tackle yourself without needing a specialist tradesperson.
“I think that dream bedroom makeover is a real achievable Christmas holiday project, particularly leading into the New Year, you spend so much time in your bedroom sleeping,” Kara said.
“Getting everything out of your bedroom, washing the walls, giving them a paint and then bringing everything back in… maybe a new bedspread is really nice for the New Year.”
Kyal said landscaping over the holidays was another good job to tackle.
“And the other one is just set yourself a goal list for the New Year, which could be a new bathroom, and start doing your research, going and looking at baths and tapware and jumping on the platforms like hipages and looking at pricing, and just spend that time planning,” Kara said.
