If you are looking to buy houses with these attributes, make sure you account for additional renovation costs!

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Before buying a house, homeowners tend to consider the cash outlay for both the house purchase and the corresponding renovation.

For the latter, it is important to note these attributes which might give you a shock when you get your renovation quotation, and it is certainly not because the IDs or contractors are trying to take advantage of you.

1) Resale condos

We have mentioned this a few times. The primary reason for condos being more expensive than HDBs is due to the restricted time frame that the MCSTs mandates for renovation. With labour cost being the main cost driver for renovation, with more man-days required, the cost naturally goes up.

2) Executive Maisonettes (EMs)

This is simply because you are living in a unit that is twice the size of normal HDB units! More area, more cost, and you also need to account for the additional staircase.

3a) Loft units (due to high ceilings)

Lofts are beautiful. Seriously, the full height windows, spacious looks, there is no wonder why these are so well sought after. However, do note that with the high ceiling comes a high renovation cost.

Any trade that is “height-based”, such as false ceiling, carpentry, painting or even plastering, will charge more if the ceiling is higher than the standard sizes of HDB or condos.

Many trades are “height-based”. Hence, this can scale the costs quite significantly, much to the bewilderment of homeowners when they realise it.

3b) HDBs with high ceilings

It is not just condos with high ceilings. Certain HDBs have them too. This is more frequent for those staying in the topmost floor, or those staying at a high floor (i.e. 30 floors and above).

4) Walk-up apartments

If you have walked around tiong bahru, or have purchased a condo around the east coast area, you might have seen the walk-up apartments.

This refers to houses with no lift access, where you have to climb multiple stairs to reach your house.

Without lift acess, the labour required is significantly higher. Imagine having to carry heavy tiles and equipment up and down everytime you need to do the renovation works.

The costs for such works will thus scale higher.

In short, the overarching principle behind these renovation prices is changes to labour required. Most contractors are only keen to do standard projects - standard HDBs, standard condos. Where changes to procedures are required due to a certain house layout, the labourers will charge more.

Understanding this principle can help you gauge whether your house renovation will cost more or not!

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