Survey shows moderate outlook for Australian renovation market
Online renovation marketing platform Houzz has released its annual survey on the Australian State of the Industry.
The report provides an outlook for 2023 and a review of 2022 performance for residential renovation and design businesses, based on data reported by industry professionals in the Houzz community.
It shows companies have a tempered perspective, with 54 per cent anticipating a good or very good year and 36 per cent expressing a neutral outlook for 2023. While the sentiment is less widespread than last year, more businesses expect increases in revenues and profits for 2023 than those expecting decreases (56 per cent and 51 per cent respectively, versus 26 per cent and 29 per cent respectively).
“Professionals in the home renovation and design industry have a moderate outlook about business activity in 2023, despite concerns around current economic conditions. Though less prevalent than last year, more businesses anticipate revenue growth,” says Marine Sargsyan, Houzz staff economist.
“The 2023 Houzz State of the Industry reveals that professionals are willing to implement a diverse combination of marketing, financial and customer-centric strategies to achieve their business targets amidst high overhead and materials costs.”
More firms across all of the industry groups cite an increase in the cost of doing business (84 per cent) versus those citing a decrease (five per cent ), with the share of businesses reporting an increase rising by 15 percentage points this year (84 per cent compared with 69 per cent in 2021).
Nearly two-thirds of businesses will target larger budget projects (63 per cent) and half increased marketing and sales efforts (51 per cent) to achieve expected growth in 2023.
Businesses also plan to improve customer experience and employee productivity (37 per cent and 33 per cent respectively).
The Houzz Australia State of the Industry was conducted among 85 home renovation firms in the Houzz Australia community that offer services related primarily to residential renovation and/or design. The study was fielded from December 2022 to January 2023.
