Anne Howland, CanWest News Service
More than 1-million Canadian households renovated their homes last year, spending an average of $11,000 to update, add value or prepare to sell the residence, according to a new report from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
“More than $17.3-billion was spent on renovations last year across the 10 major centres surveyed,” said Bob Dugan, chief economist at CMHC. “As well, 46% of homeowners in these 10 centres surveyed indicated that they intend to spend $1,000 or more on renovations this year.”
Approximately 1.5-million households in 10 major Canadian completed renovations last year, costing an average of more than $11,000, according to the Renovation and Home Purchase Survey released Thursday.
The main reason for renovating in 2006 was to update, add value or to prepare to sell the residence (61%), CMHC said, adding that 30% of respondents stated that the main reason for renovating was that their home needed repairs. The top three renovations completed last year were: remodelling of rooms (34%), painting or wallpapering (32%), and hard surface flooring and wall-to-wall carpeting (32%), the report noted.
Close to half (47%) of households reported that the cost of renovations was in line with what they had budgeted, the report showed, while more than a third of households went over their planned budget for the renovation.
Twenty-four per cent of households that undertook a renovation project were do-it-yourselfers who hired a contractor for a portion of the work, CMHC said, while slightly more households contracted out the renovation work (40% of respondents) as opposed to doing the work themselves (34%).
The share of households who spent $1,000 or more on renovations in 2006 was the largest in St. John’s, N.L. at 37%, followed by Halifax at 36%, while a smaller proportion of households in Vancouver (30%) undertook renovations last year.
As for renovation intentions across the 10 major centres in 2007, they are strongest in Edmonton and Winnipeg, where 51 and 50% of consumers, respectively, indicated they planned to undertake renovations costing $1,000 or more this year, CMHC said. The share of potential renovators is lowest in Toronto and Vancouver, with 43% of households in each centre intending to renovate, the report added.
On the home purchasing front, eight per cent of households across the 10 major centres surveyed intend to purchase a home in 2007 that will be used as a primary residence, CMHC said. About half of the households that intend to purchase a home next year are first-time buyers, compared to 40 per cent in 2006. The majority of first-time buyers are between the ages of 25 and 34, with a household income between $80,000 to about $100,000, the report showed.
Home buying intentions are strongest in Calgary, where 14% of households reported that they are considering buying a home this year. Purchase intentions are also strong in Edmonton, where 11% of households plan to buy, while the share is lowest in Montreal and Quebec (six per cent), the report said.
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