With two growing daughters, Brisbane couple Anthony and Natasha Marsh had a choice — sell and buy elsewhere or stay put and renovate.
“In an ideal world, we’d love to have quite a large block, but to get something like that it was going to cost $1.2m to $1.3m, and we’d still have to renovate,” Mrs Marsh said.
Anthony and Natasha Marsh with daughters Aubrey, 6, and Georgia, 9, are part of a renovation boom happening across Queensland. Picture: Lachie Millard
So, they decided to use the equity they had accumulated in their existing home in Alexandra Hills to help pay for a substantial cosmetic renovation.
“It was a bit more than we anticiapted, but once you do one area, you kind of want the whole beautiful house,” she said.
“Before we started getting quotes, I would have said maybe $150,000, but it’s going to be $200,000 minimum.”
Mrs Marsh said they bought their four-bedroom, two-bathroom brick house in 2012.
“The previous owner turned it into four (bedrooms) from three, but it wasn’t a very good job,” she said.
Homes like this one in Vienna Road, Alexandra Hills, are being renovated.
“There was a weird hallway, so we knocked out two walls to make it more open-plan and have better flow.
“We’re replacing the doors, all the floors, repainting the whole house, redoing all the bathrooms, the kitchen and the laundry.”
New figures from the Housing Industry Association reveal homeowners in Alexandra Hills spent $2.8m last financial year on alterations and additions.
Builder Dennis Boca from Tradies Network on a job site at Alexandra Hills. Picture Lachie Millard
“My in-laws live at Carindale, so we’re very fortunate we’ve been able to move out and stay with them for three or four months,” she said.
“It’s going to be our forever home now.”
Tradies Network director Dennis Boca said he had “cosmetic renos happening left, right and centre”.
“In the last four weeks, we’ve had about 100 new leads come through social media to do cosmetic renos,” Mr Boca said.
The average spend ws $200,000 to $300,000 and usually involved reconfiguring some rooms — especially to accommodate for dual living arrangements.
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