The Importance of Floor Plans

There are many well-known elements of a property that form part of an organized buyer’s criteria list. As buyer’s advocates we often tell our clients that it is what we say no to that makes the most significant difference to the success of the purchase, not just what we say yes to.

Some would know it as the ‘John West principle’.

From avoiding busy roads to targeting property in a zoning that the banks would find acceptable for residential lending, these are just some of the things we won’t compromise on. Other elements that we avoid include surroundings that could be considered off-putting, unsafe, noisy, disruptive or too busy.

Being clear about delivering what the target future buyers or tenants want in a property is not only advantageous for capital growth and vacancy rates, but also maximizing overall returns longer term. In some locations it is obvious that tenants are attracted to those properties boasting a glorious open-plan living area and great kitchen facilities, while in others it can be the ‘lock and leave’ nature of a property that enables the occupant to lead a busy life and not worry about garden maintenance and security issues.

We often hear the auctioneer’s call at the commencement of the auction include the words “north facing rear” or “north facing balcony”, and it is important to recognize how much a sunlight-facing orientation is valued by a discerning buyer. Many Melburnians struggle with our glum winters and it’s interesting to note how many Londoner’s comment on the importance of natural light. Missing out on our much needed daily doses of Vitamin D can take a horrid grip on our own state of happiness, particularly in winter, so our need to be cognisant of this requirement for some buyers is critical. Whether it be a bright front verandah, a well-lit living room, a beautiful north facing window in a favourite room or a cleverly placed clerestory window in a south facing space, light is important to most people. Sometimes clients attempt to describe a house they have inspected and often when they comment with excitement about the “vibe” or “feel” of the property, what they are really referring to is the amount of natural light.

An interesting element however that many buyers give insufficient weighting to is floor plan.

Floor plan trends evolve like fashion but for some time now, Australians have found happiness in open plan living. For some it’s pleasurable knowing that they can entertain and cook at the same time. Gone are the days of slaving in the kitchen for a dinner party while the guests enjoy hors d’oeurvres in the formal lounge.

Parents love to be able to keep a watchful eye on toddlers during meal preparation time and many families cater to a mixed age group while homework, television viewing and dining is underway at the same time.

The popular configurations for housing is for open plan living/dining to be at the rear of the house, and particularly with indoors-meets-outdoors spilling out through double doors.

When single fronted cottages are concerned, ‘ideal’ configurations are even more strictly prescribed.

The ideal layout for a two bedroom period cottage is (from front door); bedroom one, bedroom two, bathroom/laundry, kitchen/living/dining.  There isn’t much variation on that layout when bench-marking the preferred floor plan based on sales results, popular renovations and tenant demand. We call it a ‘crowd pleasing’ layout.

Many buyers consider the option of renovating to create this perfect floorplan, but neglecting to factor in the cost of doing so can lead to either disappointment, over-capitalisation or losses while the property is either untenanted or unlivable.

Waiting for the right floorplan will reward any patient landlord or home buyer, because the cost of remodeling a kitchen and bathroom can pale compared to the cost of reconfiguring a layout. Aside from restructuring the position of ‘wet areas’ and load bearing walls, the time and energy cost of battling through council approvals and drafting/architect designs can take its toll too.

We recently had an exciting assignment with a wonderful investor client whose budget could afford him to target premium period cottages in village-locations. One of our preferred criteria was to identify a cottage boasting a ‘perfect’ floor plan. Knowing that he could update the property in future years to maintain an on trend style was a given, but finding solace in the fact that he’d never have to reconfigure the floor plan to appeal to a quality tenant base underpinned our decision to target 5 Seddon Street in ever-popular Seddon. With the namesake street deserving of being coined as one of the suburb’s most beautiful streets, this pretty circa 1890’s Victorian cottage with dainty lacework and a picture-perfect picket fence caught our eye on first inspection.

We secured this gem a week prior to auction day and we’re thrilled for our buyer. Floor plans like this don’t come along every day, but when they do we will always try to pounce if all of the other criteria is met.

Wishing our investor client many years of happy tenants and out-performance capital growth.