As any tenant will know, after a hard day viewing myriad properties, walking into a villa that looks palatial on the outside, it is quite likely that your heart would sink the moment you approach the bathrooms and kitchen. However, times are changing. With tenants suddenly having the pick of the bunch, many older properties are being brushed aside in favour of the ubiquitous sparkling new homes that are now on the market.
"With the large choice available to tenants, only the best properties will stand out," says Tony Lamb, managing director of property improvement specialists, Under One Roof. "As a rule of thumb, landlords should look to be investing a year's rent every five years to keep their property attractive to tenants. Therefore, if you have a villa that you are hoping to rent for Dh200,000, you should be looking to invest roughly that every five years. In reality, you may decide to invest Dh40,000 on a rolling annual basis and gradually upgrade bathrooms and kitchens as you go along to keep the whole place looking and feeling modern and contemporary."
Return on investment
According to Lamb, the return on this investment comes in two ways. "Firstly, minimising void periods where you cannot get a new tenant when the old one moves out. This used to be unknown in Dubai but now, with reduced demand and significantly increased supply of new properties coming on to the market, this is becoming a common occurrence. Secondly, a modern, well finished property should maintain its rental value, as tenants are increasingly asking for discounts to take on tired, dated properties."
Indeed, Vineet Kumar, head of leasing and sales — Dubai, Asteco Property Management, admits, "If a villa is refurbished to meet the quality of a new villa, the rental increase can go up by 20 per cent. The main concerns tenants have for older developments are the air conditioning, bathroom fittings, kitchen cabinets and flooring. The problem is that quite often, these listed items are worn out over the years and tenants are wary of any ongoing maintenance problems."
Given these issues, Lamb admits that the company is increasingly hearing from landlords who are now discovering that only the best looking properties will rent quickly and maintain their rental value. "As such, they realise it is critical to invest in their property," says Lamb.
However, it is not only landlords who are keen to improve their homes. Homeowners are big business too. Lamb continues, "Our customers used to be mainly people who wanted to modernise and renovate the home they were living in at the time; however, we are noticing a big increase recently in people who are taking advantage of the big drop in house prices to buy for the first time. Some properties in the more popular developments have dropped in price by Dh2 million or Dh3 million, so they find that investing Dh200,000 and upwards in dramatically improving its look both inside and out should generate a good long-term return. We are also seeing an increase in people who bought as an investment property and are currently renting elsewhere, but now want to move into their investment property and make it their home for the first time. Because it has been rented for a number of years it is a bit tired and run down and needs to be made over."
For Todd Wilford , who owns property in The Lakes, although his home had previously been rented out, it was handed back in pristine condition. However, he still felt the need to employ Under One Roof to install a new kitchen, renovate the bathroom and other various works last year. His reason was quite simple. "There are thousands of villas that all look the same, so we wanted to put our own mark on it, to make it individual," he admits. "We're really pleased with the work — we love it!"
Bathrooms and kitchens
Putting your own identity on a property, when there are similar properties all around you, is another reason to renovate and it seems kitchens are the most popular feature that people want to change, closely followed by bathrooms.
Lamb says, "In terms of our customers, the biggest request is for a kitchen tailormade and designed to their needs, and after that the bathroom, with most people wanting less baths and more wetrooms. Both of these rooms tend to fall into the "too difficult" category for most homeowners to take on and do themselves, but equally they are areas they want to be modern, functional and luxurious. Personally, I think these two rooms are the most important to renovate as they are the two rooms that you tend to spend a lot of time in and, when you are there, you want to relax and enjoy them, not get out of them as quickly as possible!"
However, whether you are a tenant, conservative landlord or homeowner, there are short cuts for that revitalising makeover. Lamb says, "The quickest and easiest way is to reglaze kitchens and bathrooms using permaglaze. It comes in hundreds of colours and a number of finishes. This is a quick, easy and cost effective makeover. Obviously we work with our homeowners in a number of different ways according to their budget and needs, so sometimes they might combine some re-glazing of the walls and doors, with tile-on-tile on the floor — very quick and not too disruptive. It lifts the room with modern different coloured tiles. Putting a new gypsum board ceiling in with modern chrome downlighter spotlights is again quick, inexpensive and transforms most rooms from those horrible ceiling tiles and metal strips."
Budget and renovations
If your kitchen or bathroom is really letting the house down, how much can you expect to pay for that new lease of life? "It obviously depends on the size of the room and the quality of the finishings; however, we have done bathrooms starting from as little as Dh10,000 to over Dh100,000," says Lamb. "With regard to kitchens we can re-glaze a kitchen from Dh15,000 through to locally made kitchens retailing at around Dh70,000 to the latest Italian styled imported kitchen with high-end appliances and space saving wireworks costing Dh300,000-plus."
As many of the more established developments begin to mature, it's probably time to look at those fixtures and Lamb concludes, "I think a lot of people are now renovating as the first properties on to the market are coming up for five years old and are in need of refurbishment. Even with a good build, typically after four to five years you might want to start looking at upgrading certain areas and create new space to differentiate your property."
With more homeowners than ever before staying put it seems renovation and home improvements are the way forward for residential properties. As for landlords, they may soon find that they have no choice if they wish to continue renting out those older properties.
Seek approvals
Before you start any renovation on your property getting an approval is essential. Tony Lamb from Under One Roof advises, "People are not aware that most property improvements require approval from their developer and the Municipality. These approvals are constantly changing so it is not unusual for our customers to be surprised when they don't get approval for an extension that's similar to the one their next door neighbour did last year.
It is critical to go through the process and get the proper approvals. If you don't and get someone to do the alterations anyway, you may not be able to sell your property as any changes must be supported with a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the developer and municipality."
Lamb says the approval process is different from developer to developer and although this can sometimes be quite complex and laborious, he feels that it is highly important not to cut corners, but to do it properly and by the book.
Handy tips for DIYs
Don't be daunted by the size of the task —you don't have to do it all in one go or do everything immediately to the highest standard. Lamb explains, "A lot of our customers ask us to do a quick makeover to certain rooms that they just can't live with for a moment longer and will come back and do it more extensively when funds permit."
If you decide to do it yourself, before starting any work make sure you have the correct tools and supplies for the job. Finding out half way through that you don't have the correct tools or worse, that the ones you have are simply not suitable for the job, can be time consuming and costly. Also, some things required for home improvements are difficult to find in Dubai, so know what you need well in advance. Don't take on tasks that require training and qualifications such as civil engineering (for instance, removing walls), plumbing or electronics. These tasks must be done correctly and any mistakes can have serious repercussions. Also, generally most DIY tasks are better undertaken with a minimum of two people, so get your friends and family involved.
To give yourself ideas, get plenty of DIY kitchen, bedroom and bathroom and home interior magazines for the latest makeover ideas. They are particularly good at giving you simple ideas such as how adding a feature wall in an accent colour or a striking wallpaper can completely change the look of a room.
Be prepared for a bit of upheaval.If you get frustrated and impatient it will only make the process seem longer and more difficult than it really is. Plan out the renovation in advance, so you know when the master bathroom or the kitchen may be inaccessible and for how long, and work around it. That way you can minimise the stress and maximise the enjoyment of eating out, while your kitchen is being finished.
