Upgrade your kerb appeal for under $5k

We all want to have the best-looking house on the street and be the envy of our neighbours. This is especially true when it comes time to sell and potential buyers are making instant judgements based on the view of your house from the street.

If you want to up the visual appeal of your home without breaking the bank, here are five different ways to upgrade your kerb appeal for less than $5,000 each.

Rendered façade

If your brickwork or façade is looking dated or a bit rough round the edges, consider rendering the front of your home. According to hipages renderers typically charge $30 per square metre, so an average home of about 400 square metres would cost about $12,000 to have professionally fully rendered.

We figure why waste the time and money rendering the whole home, when you barely see or notice the sides? We recommend sticking to rendering the front for a cost-effective solution to instantly modernise the look of your home for about a quarter of the cost.

For sale: 7 Bradfield Road, Lindfield, NSW

New fencing

New fencing is a great way to snazz up the front of your property to give it that welcoming feel house hunters love, and who doesn’t adore that quaint white picket fence look?

If a traditional picket timber look isn’t for you, there are many other styles and materials out there, so you’re sure to find one that suits your taste and home’s architectural style perfectly.

Based on the average median new lot size in five Australian capitals of 423 square metres– typically with a 14m frontage, here’s the cost comparison breakdown of some of the most popular and affordable fencing materials:

• Treated pine paling- at $75/m x 14m = $1,050
• Hardwood paling fence- at $80/m x 14m = $1,120
• Tubular metal fence- at $180/m x 14m = $2,520
• Treated pine slat fence- at $280/m x 14m = $3,920

For sale: 18 Molesworth Court, West Footscray, VIC

Garage door upgrade

As one of the largest features on your home’s exterior, taking up a large proportion of your street frontage, a run-down garage door can be a real eye-sore from the street and turn off buyers.

We’re big fans of the warm appeal of B&D’s new Timber Coat Collection for Roll-A-Door garage doors, offering four different timber-effect finishes. B&D say that the average cost of a double garage door is about $3,500.

Images: B&D

Up the convenience, security and luxury of your new stylish garage door by opting for a remote-controlled or auto-lock keyless entry model. No more ducking out of the car in the rain to open the garage door to park, what a bonus!

DIY landscaping

Your front yard may simply be lacking greenery and order. If that is the case you can probably get away with some DIY tidying and gardening to improve your kerb appeal. Saving you a small fortune on landscape design and labour fees.

Use English box hedges to line garden beds, the veranda or path for a lush and timeless look that suits almost any style of home. You could also plant it around the perimeter so it doubles as a fence line as well as pretty greenery. English box plants start at $3.70 at Bunnings.

If gardening isn’t your forte densely plant your garden with hardy and low maintenance plant varieties to still have that lush look but without all the work. Spring for succulents, mother-in-law’s tongue (sansevieria), viper’s bugloss (echium) and westringia to dress up your front yard space.

For sale: 50 Philip Road, Dalkeith, WA

Path & driveway fixes

If you already have a driveway and path, look at simply pressure washing it and repairing any cracks or missing pavers to give it a new lease on life.

If they’re both beyond saving or you want a fresh look there are numerous varieties of paths and driveway materials to think about.

As a rough guide hipages say you can expect to pay:

• $60 per square metre for a plain concrete driveway and path,
• between $90 to $130 per square metre for exposed aggregate,
• and paving comes in at the most exxy, where for example bluestone paving costs $280 to $350 a square meter.

For sale: 14 Vale Street, Clovelly, NSW

You only get one chance to make a first impression on guests, passers-by and potential buyers. So why not give your property the best chance of a profitable sale by upgrading your kerb appeal.

For more ways to improve your home and impress buyers check out these garden upgrades that’ll add value to your home and tips on staging an entryway.

Happy decorating!

The Homely Team