Canadians spending more on home renos

Inflation isn't stopping Canadian homeowners from spending more on renovations, a new report has found.

The Homestars 2022 Reno Report recently revealed homeowners who engaged in renovations over the last 12 months spent an average of $13,000 on indoor improvements and an average of $6,600 on enhancing their outdoor spaces.

The report noted that despite rising costs for materials and labour, the pandemic has allowed many homeowners to build up significant savings.

As a result, when it came to funding projects over the past year, 80 per cent of respondents reported using cash on hand or savings.

Still, inflation is having an impact on decisions to renovate with 41 per cent postponing plans in the last year. Yet among those who delayed plans, the report found 75 per cent of them still plan to go ahead with renovations this year.

The report's findings are based on a survey of nearly 1,000 Canadians in June, which revealed those with renovations planned in the coming year have average budgets of more than $25,000.

Most indicated doing renovations for lifestyle reasons, with more than eight in 10 noting they had no plans to move in the next year. The report also noted the figure had fallen from the same survey a year earlier when more than nine in 10 stated they would not be moving within the next 12 months.

Forty per cent noted they decided to renovate because of pandemic restrictions — even as those rules were easing — which is an eight percentage point increase compared with responses to the same question posed last year.