Easy Ways to Increase the Value of Your Investment Apartment on a Budget

After making an investment in the form of an apartment, you’re naturally going to want to maximise the value of it. While renovations can be expensive, there are also many things that you can do with an apartment to enhance its value that aren’t overly expensive, and these things can add together to have a significant impact in the long run.

Just be aware before you go in that you may need strata approval, depending on the project and the apartment that you’ve purchased. Before making any investments into the apartment, check the strata bylaws, and if you do need approval, have an expert draft up a report for the project before applying for approval. Having the expert testimony will help get approval for the project.

1. Lobby for a secure entrance door to the apartment block

Older apartment blocks often don’t have secure entries, and in the kind of inner suburbs environments where you’re most likely to be buying an apartment, this can put potential investors or tenants off. Obviously you’re not going to be able to just invest in a secure entrance yourself, but by lobbying body corporate for it, and getting some of the other apartment owners on board, the cost of the security system split across all apartments shouldn’t be too expensive, and it will immediately add to the demand (and value) that potential buyers will see in your investment.

At the same time, consider lobbying to have secure letterboxes installed. People don’t like having their mail put in a public enough place that it can be easily stolen or looked at, and being able to point to security measures for the apartment’s mail is a good way to add to the overall value perception of the apartment.

2. Get a car park for the apartment

If there’s some way that you can get ownership of a car park (perhaps by getting strata to agree to adding more parking spots in the building, or by purchasing rights from another apartment owner), then the value of your apartment can increase significantly. Particularly in inner suburbs, car parking spaces can easily add $50 per week, if not more, to the overall value of the apartment.

3. Get the whole building on board with updates to the common areas

Whether it’s a project to replace the old carpets in the walkways, update the outdoor balconies to replace the old, ugly, concrete slabs with modern designs, or create communal outdoor areas that add to the lifestyle of the space, there is a lot that can be done with apartment buildings that can add value to them before people have even stepped foot into the actual apartment. Of course, any changes that are made to the building need to be agreed on by the owners. Given that the work completed would then be paid for either by the sinking fund (which may or may not be substantial, depending on the building), or a special levy, it can be a challenge to convince people to part with their money.

So, on a basic level, getting along with the other apartment owners, being active in meetings and participating in the community will help to convince others regarding the value of updating the property. This is especially true if you can quantify the improvement in value to the property, as people will then see this in their own properties as well.

4. When renovating, focus on space

With apartments, creating the perception of space is critical in improving the perceived value of it. Coming up with a design that allows in a lot of natural light, has high ceilings, light-coloured walls and decor, and a minimum number of walls, will increase the perception of space in an environment. Of course, depending on the apartment, not all of that will be possible. Similarly, make good use of the balcony (or install one), to increase the living area of the apartment. Provide it with a proper cover (or even enclose it so it can become a sun room), and you’ve created an extra ‘room’ in the space, and a great entertainment area also.

Small changes for a potentially large profit!

A great deal of what you can do to increase the value of an apartment involves improving the quality of the space in the entire apartment block. Though this can be a time-consuming process, it doesn’t tend to be particularly expensive, as the costs of the improvements will be spread across all owners, once the majority consensus has been achieved.