How much do you spend on maintenance?

Discussion in 'Repairs & Maintenance' started by Beelzebub, 25th Jul, 2015.

Join Australia's most dynamic and respected property investment community
  1. Beelzebub

    Beelzebub Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    822
    Location:
    Lost
    I hear lots of horror stories on how you should not buy an investment property because the maintenance will eat up all your rent (my brother's comment when I let slip my recent purchase).

    So with that I began thinking. How much does the average person spend on maintenance in a year?

    Since the financial year has just ended I'm wondering how much each person has spent on maintenance for each of their IPs. And what kind of house their IP is.

    Beelzebub
     
  2. wategos

    wategos Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    19th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    623
    Location:
    NSW
    Last year about $10,000 on one house (brick). Another house I held for a while (wood) averaged about $4000 a year. A 2br unit I had for a long time was about $2000 a year averaged out over 20 years. Biggest expenses... roof/guttering problems, windows, flooring, old wooden decks, carports, painting, plumbing problems, stoves, air conditioners.
     
  3. Ace in the Hole

    Ace in the Hole Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    2,872
    Location:
    Sydney
    For 13 IP's held an ave of 5 years now, including Body Corp gardening to 11/13 townhouses, smoke alarms, repairs, etc
    Approx 0.1% of the value of the properties spent.
    i.e. 1/10th of 1%.
    If I under calculated by chance, it would be well below 0.2%.
    That's about 5 days worth of Capital Growth to cover the costs for the whole year.
     
  4. jins13

    jins13 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    19th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    2,357
    Location:
    Sydney
    I have old places so constantly something that needs to be replaced. I am hoping my latest reno project that had heaps of things replaced, will end up with minimal maintenance costs.
    I do know in the near future all my IPs require fencing to be done and concerting for the driveways. Not looking forward to that because I know there will be other costs as well.
     
  5. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    27,094
    Location:
    Sydney or NSW or Australia
    Budget for around 2-3% of purchase price/current market value. Oh! That's just as much as strata......
     
  6. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    13,932
    Location:
    Brisbane
    We've always bought old places and immediately done what needs doing to bring them up to a better standard. As each tenant left, we would add something that improved it, so this cost was upgrading rather than maintenance and the subsequent rent was higher as we improved the house.

    Once the house is to a good standard, the maintenance doesn't eat much at all.

    I've just looked at two houses we have, and one we replaced a dishwasher $600 and the other we had two little plumbing jobs totalling under $600. That is it for those two timber queenslanders. We did have one painted, around $10K from memory, but that will be it for the next ten years. Even a brick house requires painting of trims, eaves etc, and that may still require trestles and equipment moved around the house, so it is not "cheap" I'm guessing.

    Apart from external painting of timber walls that you don't get with brick walls, I would think the maintenance is similar?
     
    shimmy and Gingin like this.
  7. kitdoctor

    kitdoctor Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    31st Jul, 2015
    Posts:
    543
    Location:
    Darwin
    It certainly can vary from year to year and when the biggies come along it's not for the faint hearted e.g. exterior repaint modest timber home/brick base $15k, blocked sanitary drain $2k+, rebed/repoint ridge cap tiles $3k+, new fences, retaining walls etc.

    Cheers
    kitdoctor
     
  8. rhinsor

    rhinsor Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    655
    Location:
    Perth
    1984 property last financial year $1500. All water related, rusted outside tap, shower breach replaced, washers replaced. Would of been cheaper but all happened at different times.
    1970 property last financial year $0.
     
  9. Samten

    Samten Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    24th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    275
    Location:
    Sydney
    Has anyone done a schedule that looks at costs for different types of dwellings? Brick single storey, timber single story, brick 2 storey/highset, timber 2 story/highset, duplexes, strata fees for high rise accommodation.
    I know properties vary from property to property but some of the more experienced may have accumulated data over time.
     
  10. joel

    joel Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    22nd Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    876
    Location:
    Adelaide
    I sure would love to hear some more horror repairs stories!
     
  11. 380

    380 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    19th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    1,353
    Location:
    Australia
    Budget around 1% of value for older properties.