Lighting in your rental property

Curious from both renters and investors how they go about their lighting requirements:

Do you go about the cheap, one bayonet a room look or actually outfit some decent enough say ceiling lights (the ones that nearly sit flush like downlights) etc? Do tenants ever request lighting upgrades or changes?

Or does the one cheap bayonet light per area or replaced with a basic light fitting do the trick?

Just curious how tenants and landlords alike feel about this. I was putting together my final electrical plans: junction boxes and conduits and the like, with the thought of rigging up hillstone ceiling led lights post handover with an electrician. 10w and 15 w cost under 40/50 each. Not alot for an OO but obviously once you add in say 50-65 dollars electrician installation a light you could be looking at close to 1.7k for lights and similar for installation versus leavinf a standard builder provided bayonet (or even installing a better replacement hanging light over the bayonet)

Many rental listing photos ive been monitoring on domain seem to go down this path. Am i the only one who finds it abit shabby seeing one bayonet in the middle of the open living area's family room, or the master bedroom?

Maybe I'm confusing emotion for physical return on my investment if everyone else is gettinf away with barebones basic bayonets- particularly with the quantity provided per area.

Im sure fitting ceiling LEDs would increase resale value, but rental appeal? I aasume no additional rental return, at least directly? Perhaps easier to maintain? As is a landlord responsible for paying for standard bayonet light globe replacement costs. Or do most tenants Just DIY out of their own pocket?

Lighting thoughts would be great!

 

My PM advised me to replace my oyster lighting in the hallway to a pendant lighting so that tenants can change bulbs easily. I bought one at Freedom for less than $40.00 (sale) The rest of the lighting comes from the fans in each room and living room. I wouldn't do down lights/LED stuff, too costly to install. In short, don't overspend and know your targeted tenants.

 

Fluoros throughout. If I cant do fluorescent then Hi-bay lighting. Massive polycarbonate sheets don't go astray either.

 

Mixture of fluoro oyster lights and LED downlights

 

Interesting , any pics of said setups? How do you go about positioning your oysters or fluoros - are you all going minimal quantity wise per area? Most rental photos have one light per area/room and my biggest question is if you go down this route you'd have to centralise the light on the ceiling. This would contrast down the track with led/downlights as you usually have say 4 spread out in a square/box shape in say one large open area... would you just patch up the roof then? Or any hack /bright idea around this so you can maintain flexibility to beef up lighting next time if you want to resale or fit it out for living in it yourself?

 

Perhaps I need to reconsider my minor bedrooms changing the junction box back to a bayonet and adding conduit (say C25) to the light switch.

The only thing I can think of though is to replace to an oyster or fluor light larry, you mentioned $40. But that could just about get me a 15w ceiling LED light that would fill the whole 10-12m2 bedroom i would think?And it wouldn't need replacing for a good 7-15 years I'd estimate, at least from what I hear about their lifespan?

Or is their a cost saving when it comes to installing multiple fluoros/oysters over ceiling light LED's?

How about external lighting - keeping it as per your internal lighting responses? Or simple bayonets?

 

Yeah just the $15 oysters from bunnings here.

Though there are a couple of IP's I wouldn't mind seeing lit in flickering orange and yellow....

 

It's the only light that I am replacing which is to make the long hallway look nice, the rest is just standard ceiling fans with light and I am not replacing them. The kitchen has relatively new lights previously installed by owners so there's no need to replace them. I won't be living in it so I try not to spend unnecessary money on it. I hope i don't have a fussy tenant (IP under reno at the moment)

 

Ahh... the typical office panel like lights Scott.. never seen them in an IP though.

larry assuming you have no ducted air cond in that case. Considering the fans too (putting conduits in light switches incase) but seems like all the other rentals in the area (Piara waters - 6112) advertised for rental have ducted RC. So I think while It would eventually rent it may be of a premium enough nature/area to warrant ducted RC.

Just how many is everyone putting in though for the lights mentioned above? Are you getting away with the 1 per room as per rental adverts without tenants complaining or being put off?

 

Aren't all offices & warehouses IPs?

 

What is your pricepoint/ target market?

That will help you answer your question

 

Let's narrow it to residential houses then and exclude offices. Warehouses etc.

Pricepoint sanj? Lets say the 520-540k price point, rentals around 450pw now id say. May struggle but were well over 500 this time last year so believe cycle may recovrr abit by the time i build.

I wouldn't mind going the one light a room stinge but the dilemma i face is say a theatre which one would commonly have a four ceiling or downlight arrangement in a square format... By placing one single light centre room it works for a rental but would be a shot in the foot down the line.

Then again getting a tenant to replace their own lightbulb given the ease (unless they then chase you up for the reimbursement) is a nice life hack.

 

Ive struggled to find a site that really breaks down details of demographics but id say qlot of new young couples, families and a decent spread of downsizers and the like. Not too skewered totally towards young new families and homebuyers as piara waters 6112 isnt too far on outskirts to drive that sort of demographic.

Edit: i might add sanj, following on from the anticon thread, one might argue the led ceiling lights wouldd have low operating costs and allure, whether potential renters will consider that in hunting out an IP, or may even be put off by a nicely setup (that is more than a standars one light per area) lighting plan and think it'll cost more to run than one barebone fluorescent.....

 

I have LEDs in the living areas and a single fluoro oyster in all bedrooms

Living/Kitchen

 

Nice tiles. I notice an oyster on the kitchen ceiling in above pic. Isnt the installation price for electrician the same whether you went the led/ceiling light vs say that oyster light? So only the material price of the led itself??

But LED's are more operating cost efficient than oysters right? As a selling point for tenants...?

 

I don't think lighting itself is a selling point. Surely there are others that matter more to a tenant like bathroom and/or kitchen? Really it's about the market you're targeting IMHO.

 

I'm not a lighting expert but one fluoro like the kitchen or bedroom is sufficient for a room but you'd need 4 LED down lights for the same sized room - so 4 times install and 4 times product.

 

From a tenant perspective a camp fire is always lovely to set the mood. What doors and flooring have you gone for?

Has your builder provide you a standard package for lighting?

 

I've recently changed lights in every room to LEDs, light looks great and will last a long time, costs less to run, ands it's done if we decide to sell.
8 lights, every power point and light switch replaced ( updated) for $1200