Talking property

Home improvements can wait but our holidays can't, says Isabel Morton

FOR MANY, the June bank holiday weekend heralds the start of the summer holiday season. Some of us take the opportunity to tackle long overdue DIY jobs and enthusiastically tidy up our gardens, but most of us have our bags packed and can hardly wait to escape for the long weekend. According to a recent Mintel report, things are changing, but not quite in the way we might have imagined.

In response to the economic slowdown, we are cutting back on some obvious luxuries such as eating in restaurants, which is all very normal, but the report also revealed a few surprises - such as the fact that we have absolutely no intention of cutting back on holidays or short breaks. After last summer's weather, we are not taking any risks. And now that we have got used to skipping in and out of the country, we are not giving it up.

Another surprise finding is that over half of us will cancel DIY and home improvements this year. An unusual result considering the slowdown in property sales. Nowadays, when people decide not to move house, they invariably spend money on home improvements. They consider how much the stamp duty and solicitors' fees would have cost, had they moved, and how their home improvements only cost half that. They extend kitchens, add conservatories, convert garages and go into the attic. In some cases they do add value to their homes. In other cases they end up with a semi-detached Taj Mahal situated on a very normal suburban road.

There was a time in the 1980s and early 1990s when estate agents advised vendors to do nothing to their properties, as invariably the expensive new conservatory would not increase the value. In those days, it didn't much matter what you did, because nobody was very interested in home improvements. Will the estate agents be advising us in the same way today? Have we seen the end of the large skips and the huge extensions?

Mintel's use of the word 'cancel' when referring to home improvements implies that we had made plans to do work which we are now going to drop. Does this suggest that we don't want to waste money on home improvements now house prices have dropped or does it imply that we don't have the money in the first place?

Either way, builders who are no longer employed on large developments are not likely to pick up much work on small private jobs this year either.

It is interesting that the Mintel report is called Irish Lifestyles. The word 'lifestyle' has become one of the most important words of the last decade. We associate it with the economic boom, high property values, success and money.

The idea of living any sort of lifestyle is comparatively new to us. For decades we were too busy just getting on with living to have time to consider any particular type of lifestyle. There is an expression that reminds us to "be careful what we wish for" - as we may receive it. And we did.

So, it's now all rather embarrassing. We went mad for a while and it was fun while it lasted. Now we can no longer boast of a vibrant economy, a roaring tiger, fast selling property and large profit margins. But perhaps it's no harm, as the time may have come to regain our soul, or what's left of it. Let's hope it's salvageable.

It may not be long before we are forced into letting go the last of our little Celtic Tiger luxuries - travel and holidays. So, forget about laying the patio or constructing the deck and don't bother replacing the kitchen countertop. Pack your case and off you go to relax and enjoy the long weekend.