Sydney increase in renovations

As Australia's housing market swells in value, many homeowners see renovating as a better option than purchasing or building a new property.

The property market in Sydney, Australia has been one with ups and downs, similar to the rest of the country's concern over housing prices, interest rates and the now infamous credit crunch. Yet homeowners are looking more frugally at their needs.

In Sydney, property owners are planning to do more renovations and adding onto their homes through additions rather than buying a new piece of property. This is the first time in 18 months that there is an increase in the value of renovations and additions. The jump in renovations was 7.9% This information was released by the Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

In 2007, the country and Sydney in particular saw a drop in the amount of homes being built here. This, many investors believe, is due to the continuous rise in interest rates here.

As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, Jason Anderson who is senior manager at industry researchers BIS Shrapnel, "This is the first sign we are starting to see some improvement here – it's a very positive sign."

Also announced Wednesday was new facts from the Australian Financial Review. According to them, the sale of Sydney's prestige homes has dropped by some 35% in 2008 so far. These homes are those valued at more than $2 million. So far this year, 190 properties like this have sold, in comparison to the 295 that sold in the same period of time in 2007. These figures show that homeowners plan to buy and stay in their homes.

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