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Over the last financial year Western Australian homeowners spent almost over a billion dollars on home renovations.
Statewide renovation spending reached $1.2 billion in 2025-26, driven by everything from major kitchen and bathroom upgrades to general cosmetic work.
Of that, $934 million was invested across the Greater Perth region and $130.9 million was spent in June alone.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released new figures this month showing which SA3’s (geographic regions) saw the highest amount of money spent on fixing up homes.
And the list might surprise you.
Cottesloe-Claremont was at the top of the table, which saw homeowners spend about $127 million doing up their homes over the past year, jumping up by $7 million from the previous year.
Second in line was Perth City, with just over $108 million spent on renovations, followed by Stirling with $93 million invested.
Architect and former deputy Lord Mayor of the City of Perth Sandy Anghie said it was a good sign to see home renovations up.
“Overall there has been an increase of $120 million in renovations across the board … and Cottesloe-Claremont is still on top in 2025-26,” she told this masthead.
“But interestingly in Stirling, which is holding the number three spot this year, the investment in renos has gone up by $30 million. It’s shown the highest increase. And then spots four and five on the list both went up by about $20 million.”
Anghie said she believes homeowners will continue to invest in renovations for a littany of reasons.
“We’ll probably continue to see renovations increase in WA because of the record low housing supply, soaring property prices, new build delays taking so long, and land supply challenges and transaction costs,” she said.
“It is obviously an increasing trend in WA, which is actually a good thing for sustainability reasons. But it looks like [more] people are staying put and upgrading, which is also more practical and cost-effective.
“A number of my clients have been younger couples, and they’re keen to retain character homes and renovate. I think an appreciation of our character neighbourhoods is a really good thing as well.”
She said it was positive to see people opting to renovate apartments within Perth’s CBD, and common works often included updating kitchens and bathrooms.
“With apartments, you can make cosmetic changes. Typically in renovations, people are updating kitchens, bathrooms and modernising them, which not only improves amenity for the current residents, but obviously increases future sales value as well,” she said.
The regions which saw the least amount of money put into home renovations were Kwinana with just $9 million over the financial year, Serpentine-Jarrahdale with $13 million and Gosnells at $17 million.
Master Builders WA chief executive Matt Moran said he believes renovations have become more attractive because of the current housing market.
“If someone already owns a property in a suburb they like, many are opting to improve what they have rather than jumping back into a very competitive property market,” he told this masthead.
“In many cases people are sitting on a valuable piece of land in exactly the location they want to live in and decide the expenditure into their existing property … can make more sense than trying to reproduce what they already have somewhere else.”
Moran said this is likely the case in Stirling, Joondalup and Melville, particularly because they all have large areas of well-established housing, a big inventory of older housing stock and relatively high underlying land values.
“A big factor is [also] the lifestyle. People are attached to schools, neighbours, beaches, parks, transport and family networks,” he said.
“A renovation gives [people] the opportunity to get the additional bedroom, larger kitchen, better entertaining area, home office or whatever else they now need.”
However, Moran said renovations weren’t necessarily cheaper than building a home from scratch.
“Renovations can actually carry a higher construction cost per square metre than a new home because you are working around an existing structure,” he said.
“There is demolition, temporary works, restricted access, matching old construction to new, working around existing services and inevitably things you cannot see until you open the building up.
“What this means is somebody might spend less overall because they are only altering part of their home, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the building work itself is cheaper.”
Meanwhile, Nu Wealth managing director Daniel McQuillan said homeowners should be cautious not to overspend on renovations.
“[We have] found that there are particular renovations that appeal to property buyers and will maximise the resale value of the property when it comes to selling it,” he said.
“In particular, anyone proceeding with a home renovation should focus on improving highly visible areas around their home that would impress future home buyers and would enhance the value of the property,” he said.
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