Reno favourites for property investors over Christmas

What to do

The main goal of Christmas-time renovations, she said, should be low-priority things that are difficult to do in the opposing season.

“So, things like pressure cleaning because that’s one of the things that’s really hard to do in winter, obviously,” she said.

“Deck maintenance is really important. If they haven't already, they need to do a lot of their deck maintenance because the backend of summer is going to absolutely crush any of their exposed timber work outside.

“Another one for me is again all that season, is looking to install ceiling fans and air conditioning. They can give you an immediate return on your bang for buck, very happy tenants. All very, if it’s your own home, very happy inhabitants which is always good.”

Kitchen renovations are another task that investors could manage during the Christmas period, as any food preparation can mostly be performed while the kitchen is out-of-order in an outdoor space with a barbeque.

“You could literally turn pretty much most of your breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals to barbecue meals or outside meals whilst your kitchen’s being renovated. They’re ones that I quite like,” she said,

Due to the lower temperatures that occur in the early morning and late evening daylight, Dr Findlay also suggested to get external painting done.

“The sun is up well and truly by you know six o’clock. If you worked six until nine, and five until eight, you could actually get a pile done. Especially when it comes to do anything that requires setting and drying,” she said.

“It’s an ideal opportunity to work split shift as well. You know a lot of the time, say in winter, if you wanted to paint your front door, you would only have sort of the middle of the day to do it. It would actually take you longer, because you’d need to wait for things to dry.

“Whereas in summer, you could have one coat on in the morning, actually have a second coat on that night – perfect.”

What not to do

Meanwhile, while it may seem like a lovely day outside, Dr Findlay cautioned against doing any strenuous gardening renovations.

“It's way too harsh on the plants that you’re looking to put in. You’ll find that you’ll have less of a success rate, unless you’re really nurturing them well, because they’ll be blasted with the heat,” she said.

“To be honest with you, anything outdoor in the middle of the day, I say no to in summer. It’s just way too hot, especially if you’re looking to be painting outdoors in the middle of the day.”

Want to learn more? Read Right Property Group's detailed breakdown of renovation fundamentals for property investors.