50 Latest Home Improvement Spending Statistics For The UK (2024)

UK home improvement spending statistics tell a clear story – we are a nation of little tweaks! The latest stats also reveal our love for changing things around increased during the pandemic.

UK Home Improvement Spending Statistics

1. A recent survey found that 77% of UK homeowners have spent money on home improvement in 2021. (Money.co.uk)
2. The survey found that UK homeowners spent an average of £1,473 on home renovations in the first eight months of 2021. (Money.co.uk)
3. Overall, British consumers spent £110.3 billion on home improvements in 2021. (Powered Now)
4. The median renovation spend increased from £15,000 in 2020 to £18,000 in 2021 in the Houzz & Home survey. (Houzz & Home)
5. When asked at the start of the year, 49% of Brits said they’d renovate their homes in 2022, and 55% stated their plans to decorate. (Houzz & Home)
6. UK homeowners planned to spend £10,000 on different projects in 2022, a 43% jump from £7,000 in 2019. (Houzz & Home)
7. The top 10% of spenders said they would spend up to £100,000 on projects in 2022, compared to £75,000 in 2021. (Houzz & Home)
8. Another survey found homeowners looking to spend an average of £6,727 in 2022. (RISA)
9. 17% in the RISA survey said they’d spend over £9,000 in 2022. (RISA)
10. In June 2021, the UK Planning Portal received 63,497 applications for planning permissions in England and Wales in May 2021, up 52% from the previous year. (UK Planning Portal)
11. 55% of people in the North East were planning to renovate in 2022, compared to just 38% in East Anglia and Northern Ireland. (Very)
12. One survey found that homeowners in the South East are planning to spend the most, with an average of £4,264. (Very)
13. The average planned spending in Scotland stood at just £2,984 in 2022. (Very)
14. Allerdale was named England’s top renovation hotspot in 2022, followed by Redcar and Cleveland. (Money.co.uk)

The Biggest Home Improvement Projects in the UK

15. One in five spent the majority of the money renovating their garden (20.28%), followed by the living room (16.61%) and the bedroom (13.83%). (Money.co.uk)
16. In another survey, 21% said they’d upgraded heating and electronics, 14.8% installed double glazing on windows, and 14.8% improved overall insulation. (Tapi.co.uk)
17. Five million Brits redecorated rooms in their homes in 2021, and 1.5 million built an outhouse. (Powered Now)
18. Interior rooms were the priority for three in four UK renovators in 2021. (Houzz & Home)
19. Applications for home offices increased by 250% between 2019 and 2021. (Barbour ABI)
20. The most popular home improvements in 2022 for the RISA survey were cosmetic changes (52%), kitchen renovations (34%) and bathroom renovations (31%). (RISA)
21. A survey conducted in May 2022 revealed painting (65%) and decorating (61%) to be the most common types of renovation. (Compare the Market)
22. In 2020, two-thirds of homeowners made major changes to their kitchens. (Houzz & Home)
23. British spent an average of £11,500 renovating their kitchens in 2020, a 15% increase from 2019. (Houzz & Home)
24. UK homeowners were shown to spend an average of £173 on decorating products, £187 on wallpaper and £130 on paint. (Very)
25. TV (23%) and magazines (20%) remain the most popular sources of renovation inspiration for UK homeowners. (Very)

Home Renovation Spending: Savings & Credit

26. Cash remained the leading form of payment for home renovations (85%). (Houzz & Home)
27. The percentage of UK homeowners who used credit cards to fund the home renovations fell from 19% in 2019 to 12% in 2020. (Houzz & Home)
28. 38% of UK homeowners were currently renovating their homes when asked by a survey in May 2022, with 61% using savings to finance the projects. (Compare the Market)
29. The majority of Brits said they used savings to fund home renovation, 20% said they used money originally intended for holidays, and 7% said funds originally intended to buy a car. (Money.co.uk)
30. 32% of respondents said they’d renovate their garden or work studio if money weren’t an issue. (Money.co.uk)
31. Research from May 2022 showed that 47% of homeowners struggle to afford home renovations due to the increased cost of building materials. (Compare the Market)
32. 25-34-year-olds were the most impacted when it came to affording renovations, with 58% of them stating problems. (Compare the Market)
33. 41% of those homeowners who are pausing their renovating plans say they are doing so to prioritise spending money to help with the rising living costs. (Compare the Market)
34. The price of construction metals has grown by 36.8% since 2015, on average. (The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
35. The overall cost of construction has increased by 49.8 since 2015. (BEIS)

DIY vs Professionals – The Cost is Clear

36. In 2020, 88% of homeowners hired professional help for the projects. (Houzz & Home)
37. Only 19% of the Houzz & Home survey respondents said they completed home improvement on their own. (Houzz & Home)
38. 23% turned to seeking help from professional architects in 2021. (Houzz & Home)
39. There was a 32% increase in demand for tradespeople in 2021. (Rated People)
40. 45% of UK homeowners said they struggled to find a tradesperson for home renovation in 2021. (Rated People)
41. Nine in 10 tradespeople say their costs increased in 2021, and 84% experienced material supply issues. (Rated People)
42. Home improvement costs went up by 15% on average in 2021, with 78% of tradespeople increasing their prices by 20% or less. (Rated People)
43. Labour and materials for a bathroom renovation could cost £5,726 on average in 2022. (Rated People)
44. Interestingly, two in five renovators overshoot their budget by an average of 20%. (Hiscox)

Reasons Behind Home Improvement

45. 51% of those who’ve renovated cited the fact they spend more time at home as the reason for doing so. (Money.co.uk)
46. The main reasons for home renovations in another survey were improving the look (47%), increasing the home’s value (40%), and repairing damage from previous renovations (32%). (Houzz & Home)
47. 12% of surveyed Brits are planning on renovating because they are embarrassed their homes are not up to the same standard as their friends’ homes. (Very)
48. UK homeowners choosing to improve and renovate rather than move increased fivefold between 2013 and 2018. (Hiscox)
49. 66% of UK homeowners admit their homes have things they’d like to change. (RISA)
50. 20% of Brits regretted buying their first home because of how much it cost to renovate. (Property Reporter)