Australians Are Spending a Record $16.6 Billion Renovating — But Are We Renovating the Right Things?

Australians love renovating.

I know I do.

I’m an unapologetic renovation-show junkie. Give me a tired house, an impossible deadline, a kitchen being ripped out and a dramatic reveal and I’m watching.

But renovation television is entertainment.

When it’s your home, your savings, your equity and potentially your eventual sale price on the line, the decisions need to be made very differently.

And right now, Australians are spending extraordinary amounts of money making those decisions.

How much are Australians spending on renovations?

New analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data by Primara Research found Australians spent $16.62 billion renovating existing homes in the year to June 2026.

The June quarter alone accounted for $4.15 billion — the highest quarterly renovation spend since records began in 1974.

After adjusting for building-cost inflation, the analysis puts real renovation activity at $15.72 billion, 23 per cent higher than in 2020.

The broader ABS construction data also shows residential construction activity remained strong. Residential construction work rose 1.7 per cent in the June quarter and 9.1 per cent compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

So Australians clearly haven't fallen out of love with improving their homes.

My question is:

How much of that $16.6 billion is being spent before homeowners really know what they're trying to achieve?

Is renovating your home still worth it in 2026?

Sometimes absolutely.

But “renovations add value” is far too broad to be useful advice.

A renovation can improve the way you live.

It can remove major buyer objections.

It can help a dated property compete with better-presented homes.

It can potentially increase what buyers are prepared to pay.

And it can also cost substantially more than the additional value it creates.

Those are very different outcomes.

The question isn't simply:

Should I renovate?

The better question is:

What does this particular property need, for this particular objective, in this particular market?

What renovations add the most value before selling?

There isn't one kitchen, bathroom, colour palette or renovation checklist that works for every Australian home.

Before recommending what to change, I want to know:

Who is the likely buyer?

What are comparable renovated and unrenovated properties actually achieving?

What price range are we trying to compete in?

What is stopping buyers from saying yes to this house now?

And importantly:

What is the realistic end value if we fix those problems?

Only then can we decide where money should be spent.

A $40,000 kitchen may make perfect financial sense in one property and be completely unnecessary in another.

The same applies to bathrooms, flooring, landscaping, additional bedrooms, extra living areas and cosmetic improvements.

The renovation itself isn't the strategy.

The buyer and the numbers determine the strategy.

Are buyers still looking for renovated homes?

A softer property market doesn't mean buyers have disappeared.

But it can mean buyers become more selective.

Sydney's preliminary auction results for the week ending 26 September 2026 recorded a 51 per cent clearance rate, with 1,029 auctions scheduled. Of the 658 reported results, 335 sold, 232 were withdrawn and 91 passed in.

That doesn't tell us that every renovated home will outperform an unrenovated one.

It tells us something more important:

Sellers cannot assume buyers will accept whatever is put in front of them.

There are markets within markets.

A buyer looking at a $1 million family home in one Sydney suburb may have completely different expectations from someone buying at $2.5 million somewhere else.

Even within the same suburb, buyer expectations can change according to the home's size, configuration, street, land, condition and price bracket.

That's why generic renovation advice can become expensive.

Should I renovate before selling my house?

Before spending anything substantial preparing a property for sale, I would answer these five questions.

1. Who are you renovating for?

Are you staying in the property for another ten years?

Preparing to sell?

Helping Mum or Dad prepare the family home?

Renovating an investment?

The objective changes the decision.

If you're selling, your personal taste becomes much less important than understanding the realistic buyer pool.

2. What is the property's realistic end value?

Don't start with:

“We've got $100,000 to renovate.”

Start with:

“What could this property realistically be worth when we're finished?”

Then work backwards.

The end value should help determine the budget — not the other way around.

3. What is actually stopping the property competing?

This is where homeowners can spend money on things buyers weren't particularly worried about while leaving the real objections untouched.

It could be an outdated kitchen.

But it might instead be poor flow, lack of an ensuite, tired flooring, inadequate presentation, an awkward room, neglected outdoor areas or simply too many visible jobs for the buyer to take on.

Find the objection before prescribing the renovation.

4. What will the likely buyer actually value?

There's a big difference between something looking beautiful and something influencing a buyer's decision.

Ideally, improvements do both.

The aim isn't necessarily to create the most impressive house.

It's to create a property that makes sense to the broadest realistic buyer pool at the intended price point.

5. What is the maximum sensible spend?

This is the question that gets lost once renovation excitement takes over.

If the realistic value difference between the property now and the property after improvement doesn't justify the cost, risk and effort involved, the strategy needs to change.

Sometimes the right answer is a substantial transformation.

Sometimes it's targeted improvements.

Sometimes it's presentation only.

And sometimes the numbers say sell it exactly as it is.

What renovation TV doesn't show ordinary homeowners

I love renovation television.

I'm not interested in telling Australians to stop watching it or stop being inspired by it.

But entertainment naturally focuses on transformation.

Real homeowners also need to focus on commercial consequence.

You don't need the biggest reveal.

You need clarity about what you're trying to achieve, what the property can support and where your money will actually make a difference.

Because when you're preparing a home for sale, you don't get another settlement.

The bottom line

Australians spending a record $16.62 billion renovating tells us something important: we continue to value better, more functional and more enjoyable homes.

But record spending shouldn't automatically mean more spending.

Before renovating, establish:

• your objective;

• your likely buyer;

• the property's realistic end value;

• the objections worth solving; and

• the maximum sensible investment.

Then renovate backwards from the answer.

Strategy first. Renovation second.

Melissa Daniels is a Property Profit Strategist and founder of Reno ProfitPro. She works with homeowners before sale to identify buyer objections, realistic end value and where — or whether — money should be spent preparing a property for market.

Sources

Australian Bureau of Statistics — Construction Work Done, Australia, Preliminary, June 2026, released 26 August 2026.

Primara Research analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data, commissioned by Temple & Webster — Australia's New Renovation Boom Hits a Record $16.6 Billion, September 2026.

Domain — Sydney Auction Results, 20–26 September 2026, preliminary results published 26 September 2026.