Nearly half of Aussies delay big renovations, survey finds

Almost half of Australian homeowners have put off a major renovation in the past two years, with most blaming the cost, according to The Times Australia. The report, drawing on a national survey commissioned by paint brand Dulux, found 48% of homeowners had delayed a big project, and of those, 71% pointed to expense as the reason. Younger owners were the most likely to hit pause: 69% of Gen Z and Millennial homeowners had delayed a major renovation, compared with 52% of Gen X and 32% of Baby Boomers.

Rather than dropping renovation plans altogether, homeowners are scaling them down. The Times reported that 63% of those surveyed had completed a smaller cosmetic update in the past two years — painting, new fittings, or a tidy-up of an outdoor area — and most spending fell between $1,000 and $5,000 per room. Six in 10 homeowners said they had a cosmetic renovation planned for the coming year, with that figure rising to more than two-thirds among Gen Z and Millennial respondents.

What this means for renovation budgets

The survey lines up with what we see in the numbers behind our own cost guides: painting sits at a completely different price point to a full kitchen or bathroom overhaul, which is exactly why it's absorbing demand from homeowners watching their budgets.

A full interior repaint — walls, ceilings, trim and doors through a whole house — typically runs $5,050 – $8,450, with a typical job costing around $6,500. Homeowners doing walls only in a single room, the kind of update described in the source article, land at the lower end of that range or below it. That's a fraction of the cost of the renovations being deferred: a mid-range bathroom renovation typically costs $21,900, and a mid-range kitchen renovation typically costs $20,000. For a household weighing up a $20,000-plus commitment against a weekend with paint and rollers, it's easy to see why the smaller job wins when money is tight.

Other low-cost, high-visibility projects are likely catching some of the same demand. New fittings, a garage door refresh, or an outdoor tidy-up all sit well under the cost of structural work. A new garage door, for instance, typically costs $2,300, and fencing work typically costs $3,800 — both projects that change how a home looks and feels without touching plumbing, wiring or layout.

Why the gap is so wide

The cost difference isn't just about the size of the job. Painting is mostly labour and a modest amount of material, so it scales down cleanly for a single room. Bathroom and kitchen renovations carry fixed costs that don't shrink much even on a small footprint — waterproofing, tiling, cabinetry, and licensed plumbing and electrical work all have to happen regardless of the size of the room. We calculate our figures from labour hours multiplied by local trade rates plus materials, then check that against market pricing and real quotes, and that fixed-cost floor is a big part of why a bathroom typically starts above $16,600 even at the basic tier, while a basic paint job starts at $3,750.

That gap explains the generational pattern in the survey, too. Younger homeowners are more likely to be earlier in paying down a mortgage and more exposed to interest rate and cost-of-living pressure, which tracks with them being the most likely group to defer big-ticket work and the most likely to plan a cosmetic refresh instead.

If you're still planning the bigger job

None of this means major renovations are off the table for good — most of the deferring homeowners in the survey still want to do them, just not right now. If you're in that position, a few things can keep costs under control when you do go ahead:

• Get the scope firm before you quote. Vague briefs invite vague, padded quotes.
• Compare against a baseline. Check any quote against Bathroom renovation or Kitchen renovation so you know whether you're paying a fair local rate before you sign.
• Sequence the work. A cosmetic update now — paint, fittings, an outdoor refresh — doesn't have to be wasted if it's planned so it doesn't need redoing when the bigger renovation eventually happens.

Whichever scale of project you're taking on, it's worth running any tradesperson's quote through our "is my quote fair" tool before you commit, so you can see how it compares with typical costs in your area rather than relying on gut feel alone.