Kiwis spend more on furniture and residential renovations enquiries double post-lockdown, according to both interior designers - and backed up by the latest retail statistics.
Interior designer and owner of Pocketspace interiors, Laura Heynike, says the demand for renovations has been “through the roof”.
Her business, prior to lockdown was about 30 percent residential projects and 70 per cent commercial. Three months later, the numbers have flipped.
“People have really cocooned at home and they can’t spend money on overseas travel, so they are either buying a car or upgrading their home,” she says.
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Bathrooms and lounges are the most common areas clients wish to make over.
“It’s quite a mix, with [projects] - whatever the weak spot they found in their home over the lockdown.”
More people are requesting to style and maximise their outdoor areas and balconies as they were spending a lot of time there while the country was in Level 4 and 3.
A smaller percentage of enquiries is from people preparing their house for a sale and upgrading it for the next five months, before the Christmas break.
“First home buyers are still quite active, and we’ve had a few people who’ve bought an apartment during the lockdown and are looking to renovate them,” Heynike says.
Now is the good time for a painting job as well, as many painters have dropped their prices due to lack of work during the lockdown. There is a time lag of about six weeks until a design project gets to the painting stage, she adds.
Hand in-hand with renovations come spending on furniture and electrical house items.
The amount of money Kiwis spent on furniture, electrical, and hardware goods rose to $674 million in May, up $93 million from last year. This came after falling to a low of $138 million in April, during the nation-wide lockdown, according to Statistics New Zealand's latest figures.
“This brought furniture and hardware spending to a higher level than usual, which could be due to pent-up demand because such non-essential businesses were closed during the Level 4 lockdown in April,” retail statistics manager Kathy Hicks says.
DIY projects will become even easier for homeowners as the government scraps consents for low-risk building work single-storey detached buildings up to 30 sq m.
Kiwis who are doing renovations themselves now have a newly released government course to guide them through the process.
Ministry of Business and Innovation Employment released online learning modules for DIY lovers to better understand the Building Code.
Building performance and engineering manager Dave Robson says the modules are only a few minutes long with assessments at the end.
“We know there’s a lot of keen DIY’ers who can’t wait to get stuck into a new project now that it’s more affordable, but they may find it a bit scary or confusing to work with the Building Code, since they don’t use it in their day to day work,” he says.
“Our goal is to make sure everything that’s being built from large commercial buildings to a sleep-out in the garden is safe, healthy and durable for everyone,” Robson adds.
