Maximising Profit Through Renovation vs New-Build Investment

From an investor’s point of view, one of the most significant drawbacks of ground-up development is the time it takes to complete construction fully.

Any new build development is a massive project, with many time-consuming stages of construction, such as designing the whole property, obtaining planning permission, finding the right workforce, and sourcing the suitable materials. This means it will take a long time to ensure the build is completed to the highest quality.

Ground-up development projects are also more susceptible to delays due to weather, as a significant portion of the construction process will occur outside.

In contrast, a complete renovation or refurbishment takes a much shorter time, and the result can be just as high quality and contemporary as a new build. As the work will take place inside, renovations generally avoid weather-based delays. This means those who invest in such a project off-plan can enjoy their finished property and start seeing returns much quicker than if they invest in a completely new development.

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One of the significant advantages of new-build properties is that they typically have superior energy efficiency compared to older buildings.

Of course, an older property can be retrofitted with more energy-efficient features during its refurbishment. However, when it comes to listed buildings, this can be more difficult due to legal restrictions on changes the owner of the property can make.

However, considering the carbon emissions usually involved in ambitious projects such as brand-new, ground-up developments is also worth considering. These projects often cause large amounts of emissions by extracting materials, transport, construction, etc.

In this case, there are environmental benefits to renovating an older property, as less materials will be used. According to Aecom, it has been estimated that the carbon footprint of a renovated building is about half of that of a new-build during its construction.