Money down the drain

Brought to you by Australian Property Investor

21st August 2006

Renovators have been warned to avoid going broke through poor design, planning and management of improvements to their property, in the August issue of Australian Property Investor magazine.

The warning comes from Archicentre, the building advisory service of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. Ron Tanton, Archicentre's Queensland manager, said the starting point for any successful renovation was developing a design to suit both lifestyle needs and the bank balance.

"With Australian homeowners spending an estimated $20 billion a year on renovations, it can be financial suicide heading off into a renovation without having both labour and material costs tied down," he said. "This often leads to unexpected cost blow-outs with the homeowner who is usually over-committed financially entering the poverty trap as they are caught halfway with a renovation and are forced to borrow extra money, usually by increasing the mortgage and subsequent long term debt."

Tanton said a design concept was a prudent cost saving way to kick-start a building project and involved an architect producing a creative design after exploring a range of renovation possibilities to suit people's budget and lifestyle needs.

A well considered design concept should include:

a sketch of the existing floor plan and a carefully-considered design concept, perhaps with some alternative ideas.

clear directions on how to undertake the project

an opinion of the probable cost of the building work

recommendations on the best way to get the project built.

An architect can help you control costs and complete your home renovation in a series of affordable steps, Tanton said.

Money down the drain

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