Property Investment
2 min read
Author: Andrew Nicol
Founder, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host
One of the most common criticisms we hear about townhouses is: "Don't they all look the same?"
It's a fair question.
After all, if you walk through a new townhouse development, many of the homes start out looking pretty similar.
The stairs are in the same place. The walls are all white. It’s got a very clean-but-slightly-boring vibe.
So, some investors worry: "What happens when I come to sell? Won't my property look exactly the same as everyone else's?"
Recently, I was out for dinner talking to Mardo, a creative designer who bought a standard 3-bed townhouse in Auckland.
Did this unique and quirky renovation. And I wanted to show you so you can see what’s possible.
The interesting thing wasn't that the owner renovated the townhouse. It was how he did it.
Mardo spent about $40,000 renovating his 3-bed, 127m² townhouse in Hobsonville, Auckland.
Here’s the before and after 👇
To be clear, this wasn’t a “rip out the kitchen and start again” renovation.
A lot of what he did was to change the look and feel of the space.
He added a mesh screen to separate the kitchen from the lounge and built a restaurant-style dining booth. He painted some of the walls black and put up wood panelling on others.
He also used dead space well. A display wall was built over an “unnecessary” slot window.
There’s extra kitchen storage, a hanging rack for pots, wooden shelves above the windows, and cubicle shelving above the sink.
The kitchen cabinetry was covered in industrial black vinyl.
In the bathroom, he added small details to the mirrors. And replaced the cabinets under the sinks.
None of these cost that much. But it turned a normal, stock-standard townhouse into something … cool.
Upstairs, timber panels were added to the staircase, while peg boards were used in the kids’ bedroom and the home office.
All in all, he didn’t make the townhouse any bigger. He didn’t build an extension or install a more modern kitchen.
But he did make it feel better.
I’m not telling you to go and renovate townhouses
I want to be really clear. Investors shouldn’t rush out and do similar renovations. (At least not yet).
One of the benefits of buying New Builds is that they don't typically need renovating.
After all, everything is new.
So, unlike an older property, there's often no obvious renovation project that will add significant value.
Maybe you spend $40k … but the property only goes up by $20k … or nothing.
But investors also tell me that they are worried that if they buy a modern townhouse, they'll all look the same when it comes time to sell.
And some home buyers look for something a bit different. Not just square metres and bedrooms. A cosy space they can live in comfortably.
And this type of renovation might be something to consider when it comes time to eventually sell your property, because that's one way you could make your property stand out.
Just because a townhouse starts out looking similar to the others doesn’t mean it always will
Founder, 20+ Years' Experience Investing In Property, Author & Host
Andrew Nicol, Managing Director at Opes Partners, is a seasoned financial adviser and property investment expert with 20+ years of experience. With 40 investment properties, he hosts the Property Academy Podcast, co-authored 'Wealth Plan' with Ed Mcknight, and has helped 1,894 Kiwis achieve financial security through property investment.
This article is for your general information. It’s not financial advice. See here for details about our Financial Advice Provider Disclosure. So Opes isn’t telling you what to do with your own money.Â
We’ve made every effort to make sure the information is accurate. But we occasionally get the odd fact wrong. Make sure you do your own research or talk to a financial adviser before making any investment decisions.
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