Home office study, backyard improvement and extensions

The impact of COVID has changed the market and families are now spending more time at home. The result is increased demand for functional rooms such as a home office, home gym/craft room and backyard improvements. Whereas previously an additional bedroom held more value, now multifunctional rooms and viable backyards are in demand.

Home Office

Average family households now consist of 2 adults and 2 children. As a result, three bedrooms are now sufficient. So, if you have a fourth bedroom or a spare room or even a nook in your home, you can easily change or incorporate the elements to create a separate office/study space.

In previous blogs we mentioned the importance of buyers already imagining themselves living in the home, so it is important to make this space creative, as well as functional. For a few hundred dollars you can add an office desk, wooden shelves and atmosphere. Some inspirational quotes on walls, a pinboard and coordinated stationery will have the area looking inspiring and stylish.

You can create a home office/study space in a nook or unused corner of a home with a small desk and some shelving and office props to visually create the dedicated space.

Clear out the clutter and check out Ikea or Office Works websites for inspiration, inexpensive and affordable office furniture. You will find the growth of the home office category has exploded everywhere, so there are lots of ideas and products on offer. As always with resale and broad buyer appeal, stick with neutral natural colours and bring the atmosphere into this functional area, through colourful desktop stationery and motivational framed quotes.

A powerful selling feature for a home office and study is being able to market your home with the latest digital wiring capabilities. It’s worth installing electricals to improve capabilities such as USB recharge ports and power points in a convenient location, but hidden.Nothing worse than extension cords running all over the space due to electrics in inconvenient locations.

And if you don’t have a spare room, carve out a workspace area in either a small nook or corner of the home or along a wall that has space for a small office desk, stool and shelving

Backyard improvements

With year-round warmer weather in Australia, coupled with more time spent at home, buyers are now looking to backyards as entertaining areas, more than ever. And the great news is, it’s not the size that matters but the functionality.

The last few years has seen creative space solutions including vertical wall gardens, firepits, outdoor gyms and kids play areas incorporated into small backyards.

If you pave a small area, topped with a small fire pit, a few deckchairs and cushions, you have visually enhanced another area of your backyard and inspired potential buyers.

Regardless of the size of your backyard, the key is to keep the space allocated to the zones you may create, in proportion to your yard, rather than a focal dominated point of the entire yard. These designated spaces create inviting zones, where buyers visualize themselves celebrating with family and friends.

Create inspiring spaces outside, where families can imagine themselves spending days and evenings together, and you will be ticking all the boxes on what buyers want today.

Outdoor Extensions.

Expanding your internal spaces to flow easily outside to an outdoor alfresco area, leaves buyers with a sense that the home is larger than what it is.

Depending on your budget, the solution may be paving the area, and this is an easy DIY project. Once outdoor dining, sofas and a BBQ are added, it improves the functionality of the space and creates the illusion of an additional living space.

If your dining and living areas lead out to the backyard, via steps down into the backyard, we recommend having the flow of entertaining improved by building a raised deck that meets the back door. You may even want to replace a single door exit to bi-folds or double doors that open onto the entertaining area.

Our key tip is to check with your local council on restrictions, as states vary with size regulations. We suggest you keep the size just under what may need council approval as waiting for approvals can become time consuming, as well as costly in applications.

Hobby room and home gyms

Two other distinct home trends we are seeing is the popularity of online workshops and home health.

If you are limited with space, experts advise that the home office will provide a better return. However, if you’re fortunate enough to have an additional room or area in your home, incorporating a Hobby Room and/or Home Gym could be a good way to appeal to buyers.

For the hobby area, we suggest a hard wood floor to enable easy clean ups. If you have carpet, you can purchase clear hard mat flooring which will both protect the carpet, but also help create the craft and hobby area. To transform the space into the perfect hobby area, add a work desk and a lamp for good lighting. The key addition to a hobby area is storage. This is key and depending on the space available, we suggest installing permanent cupboards as storage space is always valued by potential buyers. Wall shelving above the desk ensures neat and tidy organisation and easy access but most importantly inspires the buyer through demonstrating visible workable spaces.

Home gyms are also more and more attracting buyers. However, to avoid the expense of building on dedicated room and if you have a substantial unused area; we recommend simple props such as weight racking, yoga matt and even a wall mounted TV. This will successfully give the perception of another workable space. Home gyms can also be set up on large covered outdoor patios, but we only recommend incorporating if you have enough space. Buyers won’t be inspired by over-cluttered area where the space is too limited to realistically visualise it being used so.

With COVID permanently impacting the way Australians live, more than ever, these changes are here to stay. By tapping into these insights from the past year with these inexpensive solutions, you will definitely increase the final sale price of your home.

In our next blog, we will discuss budgeting your renovations. Stay in touch 🙂