Similar to everyone, we were excited when we got our own place. But unlike most couples, we know from the start that we are not going to spend a lot on our resale HDB renovation. In fact, if you remember our criteria when buying our first home, we wanted a house where we can move in immediately with minimal renovations needed.
In this post, I will be sharing why Kay and I do not want to spend a lot renovating our first home and the budget breakdown that we spent for our house.
Why No Big Renovation For Us?
Well, there are a few factors why from the start we decided not to have big beautiful renovation. And why we need a home that is in good condition; which we managed to do. Our home don’t need a lot of renovation work to move in.
1. Just Married, No Budget, Don’t Want Reno Loan
The first factor is because we do not have the budget to fork out $20,000 – $30,000 for renovation to our place. We just got married, we kinda just started working at that time (about 1 year of working) and do not have enough savings. In addition, both Kay and I are against the idea of taking a loan just to reno our place. So this makes it easier for us not to do large renovation like most of our peers. (Of course our place not as fancy as theirs too but we don’t care)
2. Not Planning To Stay Long
From the start, both Kay and I have discussed and decided that this new place will not be our last home. In fact, we foresee ourselves moving houses a few times before settling on our ‘retirement’ home. I am so grateful that Kay have the same mindset as me. And yes, we do see ourselves upgrading into private property or even landed.
As such, we do not want to spend so much on renovation for this house as it will not add lots of value to our place long term. So you can say that we are not for big renovation EVEN IF we have the funds for it.
So How Much Did We Spent On Our ‘Renovation’?
Having said all that, we did spent a little to ensure the place is suitable for us. Let me share the breakdown for our renovation loan. (Hope I can remember everything. If not, it will be an estimate)
My Resale HDB Renovation Breakdown
| Items | Cost |
|---|---|
| 2 Toilet Bowls | $560 |
| 2 set of Toilet Sink, Mirrors & Cupboard | $400 |
| 2 set of Tankless Water Heater & Shower Head | $360 |
| 4 Ceiling Fans (3 Rooms & Living Room) | $1100 |
| Fresh Coat of Paint | $500 |
| Replacing 3 Bedroom Door & 1 Store Door | $800 |
| Lamination for 3 Built-In Wardrobes | $450 |
| Built-In Bookshelves | $300 |
| Total | $4470 |
Disclaimer: This was 6 years ago so unfortunately I can’t remember most and all is just an estimation.
In the end, you can see from the table, that we spend almost $4500 on our renovation. This does not include our furniture such as sofa, TV, fridge & washing machine. It took us 4 months to fully furnished our place as we bought 1 big ticket item each month. Most of our big ticket items are bought during Expo Home Convention. (Lots of discounts and freebies)
In total, we spent less than $10,000 for our new place which last us the past 5 years before we decided to sell our place in 2019.
That’s all for now. Hope this sharing is useful for you if you are in the process of renovating your place. I will end this post with 1 advise for everyone who are in the process of renovating your place:
“Do not spend so much (>$25,000) on your renovation if you plan to sell after MOP.”
Pak Melepak (2020)
