Designing for Resale From Day One
By Ananya Reddy
Most people renovate for themselves and hope the market agrees. Sometimes it does. Often it doesn't — the home theatre nobody wanted, the bold tile that read as dated three years later.
The renovations that reliably return their cost are unglamorous: a kitchen that works, bathrooms that feel clean and current, storage, and lighting. Buyers rarely pay a premium for taste they don't share, but they always pay for function they can feel.
Avoid over-personalising the things that are expensive to undo. Keep the bones neutral and spend your personality budget on the things a future buyer can easily change — paint, fixtures, the removable.
The counterintuitive truth: the homes that sell fastest aren't the most designed. They're the ones that let a buyer imagine their own life inside them within the first thirty seconds.
Written by
Ananya Reddy
