8 TIPS AND IDEAS FOR RENOVATING A KITCHEN IN AN APARTMENT

As we move towards greater density in our capital cities, more of us are turning to apartment living. Along with older pre war purpose built residential buildings, the late 90s saw the start of a spate of factory and warehouse conversions, with kitchens that are now due for renewal. But before you dive into a renovation of this key part of your home, it’s worth taking stock with a few expert tips.

WHY AM I HERE?

Considering what you want to achieve by renovating or updating your kitchen is sometimes overlooked by homeowners. Is this property your home or an investment? Is it large enough to entertain or is it your pied a terre or love nest? Understanding what you want to get out of a renovation will help set your style and budget – and get the outcome you’re looking for.

DON’T MOVE, IMPROVE

Unlike a freestanding house, it’s quite difficult and sometimes just impossible to move services in an apartment because of the impact it will have on other parts of the building. This generally means the kitchen will need to stay where it is. Often, it’s best to stick with the same layout for services such as plumbing, gas and electrics for the same reason, although apartments with high ceilings can sometimes accommodate a change by concealing pipes in bulkheads.

GOING UP, AND DOWN

If you’re planning a major overhaul of your kitchen, you or your trades will be transporting materials through the building. Check with your Body Corporate about what your obligations are in terms of keeping common spaces clear and clean. Ideally, you will have access to a service lift but investigate how you plan on moving materials around. If it’s a difficult process, it could add to your costs.

TALK TO THE NEIGHBOURS

This is always a good idea, even if you’re renovating a house, but it’s critical in apartment blocks where everyone lives a little closer. Keep your neighbours abreast of noisy works, especially during the demolition phase, and try to be considerate of those working from home or on shift. Communicating your plans gives the neighbours the opportunity to make plans.

PLAN FOR OPEN USE

Kitchen design has changed a lot over the years, from basic U-shaped and galley kitchens to completely open plan options. We’ve even moved on from 90s open plan design, which was characterised by peninsular-style benches and raised counters to hide the mess. These days, the raised counter has been eliminated in favour of a more open style and to allow it to better integrate into the living and dining space.

MATERIAL WORLD

Because it will most likely be sitting within an open plan living space, treat the kitchen within the context of the whole room. That might mean integrating appliances such as the fridge, and using similar materials like laminate or engineered timber for the joinery that you can then continue into the living space. Details like door hardware and light fittings can also be used to link spaces and make them feel more generous.

STACK IT AND STORE IT

Apartment kitchens tend to be smaller than their freestanding counterparts, which means storage is always a major consideration. Use the entire space, right up to ceiling height and above the rangehood if applicable. Shallow shelving is particularly useful in kitchens, allowing you to easily see, as well as reach spices, sauces and cans. Make sure all your storage is highly functional and organised, with compartments in drawers, as well as cupboards.

KEEP IT SIMPLE, SWEETIE

Like the proverbial swan gliding across the lake, the overall appearance in an apartment kitchen should be streamlined and adaptable. Anything that will make a small space work harder, from a sink cover to extend bench space to a magnetic strip for storing kitchen knives should be considered, as long as it keeps the kitchen uncluttered.

Before you take the plunge, here’s a few commonly asked questions to ensure that your apartment kitchen looks and functions at its best.

Can you change the location of the kitchen in an apartment?

Because it’s part of a larger building, moving services like plumbing is particularly tricky in an apartment. With some clever design, sometimes pipes can be concealed inside cupboards or bulkheads but, for the most part, kitchens and bathrooms are fixed in apartments.

Do I need approval from strata to renovate my kitchen?

It depends on what you’re doing. If your plans extend no further than repainting, changing cabinet doors and replacing benchtops, then you shouldn’t need approval. But if you’d like to remove the wall between the kitchen and living room then, yes, you will need to seek permission. If you are looking at taking out a wall, expect to engage an engineer to ensure it will not affect other parts of the building.

What renovations add the most value in an apartment?

Just as it is for houses, a fresh coat of paint and updated kitchens and bathrooms will add the most value to your apartment when it comes time to sell. Having said that, buyers are often on the lookout for a shoddy job, so, if you have gone to the time, trouble and expense to renovate, get it done properly the first time.

Former President Donald Trump said he would ban undocumented immigrants from obtaining home mortgages, a move he indicated would help ease home prices even though these buyers account for a tiny fraction of U.S. home sales.

Home loans to undocumented people living in the U.S. are legal but they aren’t especially common. Between 5,000 and 6,000 mortgages of this kind were issued last year, according to estimates from researchers at the Urban Institute in Washington.

Overall, lenders issued more than 3.4 million mortgages to all home purchasers in 2023, federal government data show.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, made his comments Thursday during a policy speech to the Economic Club of New York in Manhattan.

Housing remains a top economic issue for voters during this presidential election. Rent and home prices grew at historic rates during the pandemic and mortgage rates climbed to levels not seen in more than two decades. A July Wall Street Journal poll showed that voters rank housing as their second-biggest inflation concern after groceries.

Both major candidates for the 2024 presidential election have made appeals to voters on housing during recent campaign stops, though the issue has so far featured more prominently in Vice President Kamala Harris ’s campaign.

Trump has blamed immigrants for many of the nation’s woes, including crime and unemployment. Now, he is pointing to immigrants as a cause of the nation’s housing-affordability crisis. Yet some affordable-housing advocates and real-estate professionals said Trump’s mortgage proposal would fail to bring relief to priced-out home buyers.

“It’s unfortunate that given the significant housing affordability crisis that is widely acknowledged across most partisan lines, we are arguing about a minuscule segment of the market,” said David Dworkin, president of the National Housing Conference, an affordable-housing advocacy group.

Gary Acosta, chief executive of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, a trade organization, said, “It’s just another effort to vilify immigrants and to continue to scapegoat them for any issues that we have here in the United States.”

A Trump campaign spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Undocumented immigrants in the U.S. can obtain an obscure type of mortgage designed for taxpayers without Social Security numbers, most of whom are Hispanic. The passage of the USA Patriot Act of 2001 allowed banks to use identification numbers from the Internal Revenue Service as an alternative to Social Security, extending a number of financial services to people without legal status for the first time.

Mortgage loans for undocumented immigrants are typically higher interest and borrowers include legal residents who have undocumented spouses, Acosta said. Lenders include regional credit unions and community-development financial institutions.

In his speech, Trump said that “the flood” of undocumented immigrants is driving up housing costs. “That’s why my plan will ban mortgages for illegal aliens,” he said.

Trump didn’t elaborate on how he would enact a ban on such loans.

Though mortgages for undocumented people living in the U.S. are relatively rare, residential real-estate purchases by foreign nationals are big business , especially in expensive coastal cities such as New York and Los Angeles. These sales have declined in recent years, however.

Close to half of foreign purchases are made by people residing abroad, while the other half are made by recent immigrants or residents on nonimmigrant visas, according to an annual survey by the National Association of Realtors. Many affluent foreigners buy U.S. homes with cash instead of obtaining mortgage financing.

In his Thursday speech, which focused mostly on other economic matters such as energy and taxation, Trump proposed other measures to bring down housing costs, including cutting regulations for builders and allowing more building on federal land. Similar ideas appeared in the housing policy outline Harris released in August .

The former president has spoken on housing-related issues in speeches at other recent campaign stops, including in Michigan last month, where he touted his administration’s 2020 overturn of a policy that had encouraged cities to reduce racial segregation .

“I keep the suburbs safe,” Trump said. “I stopped low-income towers from rising right alongside of their house. And I’m keeping the illegal aliens away from the suburbs.”