Practical Guides for Smarter Renovations

Explore expert renovation guides, cost insights, planning advice and practical tips to help you make better decisions at every stage of your project.

The granny flat is the most efficient piece of property arithmetic available to a Sydney homeowner. For roughly $200,000 you

Sydney’s mild reputation disguises how badly its housing performs. A typical unrenovated Sydney home built before 1990 has no wall

Approval is the part of a Sydney renovation that homeowners most often get wrong, and getting it wrong is expensive

Outdoor living is not a lifestyle upgrade in Sydney; it is the cheapest floor area you can create. A covered

The bathroom is the most technically demanding room in an Australian house. It is the only space where water is

Waterproofing is the highest-consequence, lowest-visibility work in a Sydney renovation. It represents perhaps four per cent of a bathroom budget

Waterproofing is the highest-consequence, lowest-visibility work in a Melbourne renovation. It is perhaps four per cent of a bathroom budget

Most Melbourne renovation disasters are not caused by bad luck or dishonest builders. They are caused by a small number

Melbourne rewards renovation more reliably than most Australian cities, for a structural reason: a very large proportion of its housing

Fifty thousand dollars is a real budget in Melbourne, and it goes further here than in Sydney. It is not,

Melbourne’s climate is often described as mild, which is misleading in a way that costs homeowners money. It is a

Renovating a Melbourne apartment involves a layer that house renovations do not: you do not own most of the building