Half Of Homeowners Plan To Do Renovations Within The Next Five Years

Toronto, ON - According to an Ipsos-Reid/BMO study on home ownership, half of Canadians homeowners (47%) say they plan to do significant renovations to their home in the next five years. Of homeowners who say they do plan to do renovations within the next five years, four in ten (38%) say they plan to renovate the kitchen and three in ten (30%) plan to renovate the bathroom, while others cite less common areas. Half of Canadian homeowners (47%) say the type of renovation they are planning is a cosmetic fix, and four in ten (43%) say they are planning maintenance or repairs less popular reasons are listed in the pages which follow. Three-quarters of Canadian homeowners (76%) who say they plan to do renovations to their home within the next five years say they will use cash from savings to pay for the renovations.

When asked whether or not they would be comfortable taking on more debt, three-quarters of Canadians (74%) say they would not. Furthermore, half of Canadians agree (47%) that they would not purchase anything unless they had the cash to pay for it.

Six in ten Canadians (62%) say when it comes to making decisions about purchasing a new or different home, they share the decision making with someone else. Likewise, just over half of Canadians (54%) say that when it comes to decisions regarding taking on a significant amount of debt they share the decision making with someone else.

Half of Canadians (50%) say they are the primary decision maker when it comes to deciding what financial products to invest in. Similarly, half of Canadians (47%) say they are the primary decision maker when it comes to home decorating such as furniture arrangements or paint colours.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/BMO poll conducted from April 20th to April 22nd, 2004. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

Half Of Homeowners Planning Renovation In The Next Five Years, Kitchen And Bathroom Top The List Of Rooms To Renovate

Half of Canadian homeowners (47%) say they plan to do significant renovations to their home within the next five years. Specifically, two in ten homeowners (21%) plan to do significant renovations to their home in the next 3-6 months, 5% plan to do so in the next 7-12, 12% in the next 1-2 years and the same proportion say they plan to do significant renovations in the next 3-5 years (8%). Fifty-two percent of homeowners do not plan to do any significant renovations in the next five years and 1% don't know.

The kitchen and bathroom top the list of rooms Canadian homeowners are planning to renovate in the next five years. Asked which room or rooms they plan to renovate, four in ten Canadian homeowners (38%) say the kitchen and three in ten (30%) are planning to renovate the bathroom. One in five (21%) plan to renovate the bedroom.

Less common areas include: Basement (15%), living room/family room (14%), recreation room (6%), den (6%), exterior/outside (5%) dining room (5%), windows (4%), or backyard (4%). All other rooms were mentioned by less than 3% of homeowners planning to do renovations within the next five years and 3% don't know which specific room(s) they'll renovate.

Canadian homeowners who plan to do renovations within the next five years are planning many different types of renovations. Half (47%) say the type of renovation they are planning is a cosmetic fix such as new paint or plaster, and four in ten (43%) say they are planning renovation for maintenance or repairs. One-third (34%) say they plan to redesign an existing room or rooms and almost half as many homeowners (13%) say they are planning an addition or additions to their home.

Only a small proportion of Canadian homeowners who say they plan to renovate within the next five years say they plan to install new windows or doors (4%), do landscaping (3%), install a new roof (3%) or flooring (3%). Almost one in ten Canadian homeowners (8%) say they are planning some other type of renovation to their home.

Most Canadian homeowners will use cash to finance their renovations.

Three-quarters of Canadians homeowners (76%) who say they plan to do renovations to their home within the next five years say they will use cash from savings to pay for the renovations. Fewer than one in ten say they will use a line of credit (7%), a personal loan (6%), or a credit card (5%). All other mentions were cited by less than 5% of Canadian homeowners planning to do renovations within the next five years. One in twenty (5%) don't know how they will pay for these renovations.

Majority Of Canadians Not Comfortable Taking On More Debt

When asked whether or not they would be comfortable taking on more debt, three-quarters of Canadians (74%) say "no" they would not be comfortable taking on more debt (26% say "yes").

• Canadians aged 55 and over are more likely than younger Canadians aged 18-54 to say they would not be comfortable taking on more debt (82% vs. 70%).

• Women are more likely than men to say that they would not be comfortable taking on more debt (79% vs. 68%).

Furthermore, half of Canadians agree (47%, 32% "agree completely") that they would not purchase anything unless they had the cash to pay for it. One-quarter disagree (27%, 13% "completely disagree"), and the remaining one-quarter (25%) are neutral.

Many Canadians Share Decision Making Responsibilities With Someone Else

When it comes to purchasing a new or different home, Canadians share the responsibility. Six in ten Canadians (62%) say when it comes to making decisions about purchasing a new or different home, they share the decision making with someone else. One-third of Canadians (33%) say they are the primary decision maker when it comes to purchasing a new home, and only 4% say that someone else is the primary decision maker.

• Men are more likely than women to say that they are the primary decision maker (37% vs. 30%), while women are more likely than men to say that decisions about purchasing a new or different home are shared with someone else (65% vs. 58%).

Deciding to take on a significant amount of debt is an important decision. Just over half of Canadians (54%) say that when it comes to decisions regarding taking on a significant amount of debt they share the decision making with someone else. Four in ten Canadians (41%) say they are the primary decision maker while only 4% say someone else is the primary decision maker when it comes to decisions about taking on a significant amount of debt.

Canadians are split in terms of who is responsible for making decisions about what financial products to invest in. Half of Canadians (50%) say they are the primary decision maker when deciding what financial products to invest in, while 43% say they share the decision making with someone else. Only 7% of Canadians say that someone else is the primary decision maker when it comes to deciding what financial products to invest it.

More Canadians say they are the primary decision maker rather than a joint decision maker when it comes to home decorating. Half of Canadians (47%) say they are the primary decision maker when it comes to home decorating such as furniture arrangements or paint colours. Just over one-third of Canadians (36%) say they share the decision making with someone else, and only 16% say they are the primary decision maker.

• Women are more likely than men to say that they are the primary decision maker when it comes to home decorating such as furniture arrangement or paint colour (65% vs. 29%), while men are more likely than women to say that they share the decision making with someone else (41% vs. 32%).

Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900