Supplied
Resting up – Izy Nelson-Will and Peter Fox have been working on a major renovation of their home on the Kapiti Coast since the beginning of last year. They noticed prices of materials rising every month, and often fortnightly.
It’s to be expected that home renovation costs will have increased alongside the rise in the cost of living. And that has been the experience of a young couple renovating their home on the Kāpiti Coast.
Peter Fox, 36 and Izy Nelson-Will, 32, started their major home renovation in January 2022, but had been gradually working on things since 2018, beginning with a garden renovation. More recently, they added an extension where the former carport was, extending the house from 110m² to 130m², They also renovated their laundry, bathroom and kitchen.
The renovation and extension is estimated to have cost $140,000 so far, with the laundry being $7500, bathroom $14,500, and kitchen $30,000. When asked if they have seen a rise in home renovation costs Nelson-Will says, “Definitely a 1000%.”
“Pretty much fortnightly to monthly, our suppliers would send us emails notifying us of increases in material costs of certain products and ranges. That has slowed down a bit, but Covid has had a real impact on prices,” Fox says.
The couple both balance working full-time with renovating their home. Fox is a builder and Nelson-Will is a youth coach. They have been able to complete some DIY renovations to save costs.
“We’ve outsourced all the plumbing, the sparky work, and the plastering because it was going to take us months if we tried to do it ourselves,” Nelson-Will says. “We’ve previously done it in other rooms. But because this was such a big area, we were like, no, we’ll outsource that as well.”
Fox and Nelson-Will have tried to upcycle materials as much as possible to lower material costs and reduce waste.
“Something that we’ve strived to do is reuse, upcycle or repurpose things if possible. Building can be quite a wasteful experience. An example would be the old carport posts. We de-nailed them, took off the paint, and cut them down to make the shelving in our pantry,” says Nelson-Will.
Their experience is no surprise to renovation specialists, who have confirmed that costs have risen since 2021, caused by a shortage of supplies and a higher demand for tradies.
Jen Jones from Nine Yards Consulting says “everybody’s costs are increasing, and so they’re trying to recover that. And they’re trying to recover that by putting up prices. It’s not unique to the renovation sector.”
Russell Clark from Licensed Renovations says the rise of costs started post Covid. “After Covid there was a shortage of supplies and materials. No one was going overseas, so everyone was renovating, and we were so busy. And of course that pushed the price of labour up.”
Rachel Radford from BuildersCrack says that home renovation costs are stabilising in 2023, with accessibility to tradies and materials improving since Covid.
“We’ve got tradies, we’ve got materials, So I don’t think prices have seen the same levels. I think 2023 has really started to solidify and make it OK for people to start renovating again.”Yet, Radford says she’s seen a change of preference in home renovations with clients leaning towards smaller renovations. “The availability of cash flow for households in general is likely impacting the willingness to commit to larger projects, and as a result, we’re probably seeing the small-to-medium projects.”
Jones says the price of Winstone Wallboards’ products and plasterboards are expected to increase next year. She advises those wanting to start renovations but are worried about the costs to recognise “prices might stagnate, but they’ll never go back to what they were. They stagnated for a while, but there are still things that are going up.”
SUPPLIED
Steve Goodey says most of the work on this renovation project was cosmetic. (Video first screened in August, 2023).