Round-up | NEWS
Kitchens first priority as homeowners spend more on renovations
HOMEOWNERS HAVE upped their spend on renovation projects by 36% in the past year with kitchens top of their priorities.
According to the survey of 3,000 UK householders by Houzz, kitchens were the most popular room for renovation, with the average spend jumping 15% to £11,500 in 2020, compared with £10,000 in 2019.
The average spend on bath- rooms among survey respondents was £5,000 in 2020, up by a quarter
over 2019. Millennials
(aged 25-39) increased their spend the most, shelling out 70% more compared with 2019 (£17,000 versus £10,000). Gen Xers (40-54) and Baby Boomers (55-74) upped their spend from an average of £14,000 to £15,000.T op spenders on renovations drove the amount dedicated to projects up to £100,000. Houzz senior economist Marine Sargsyan said: “While the pandemic caused initial concern for the industry, many homeowners finally had the time and financial means to move forward with long-awaited projects in the past year. This pent-up demand, along with long-standing market fundamentals, empower homeowners to continue investing in their homes.” Good news is that, according to the survey, the boom in renovations is set to continue throughout 2021, with 51% of respondents saying they were planning to renovate this year – a 5% increase over 2019.
Kitchen renovations carried out included changing the layout (64%) and plumbing, electrical or heating upgrades (63%), while two-in-five homeowners increased the size of their kitchens and 42% added or moved walls. Almost nine out of 10 (88%) said they had hired professionals to undertake the work for them.
Wren ploughs £3 million into IT centre and steps up recruitment
WREN KITCHENS has invested more than £3 million in its 28,000sq ft tech hub at the company’s headquarters in Humberside.
The facility includes nine videoconferencing suites, a cutting- edge IT monitoring centre, a lecture theatre and two VR studios, to which Wren is now adding a £100,000
hands-on technology area.
The tech team has developed virtual reality software that is featured in more than 100 Wren showrooms
across the UK and USA. At the same time, Wren is also aiming to recruit 60 new tech/IT staff to play a major role in the future of the retailer. To do this it held a tech recruitment event at its Barton-upon-Humber HQ, where the technologies it uses were showcased and which also featured speakers from Wren and such other tech industry professionals as the senior technical specialist at Unity, which is Wren’s leading 3D technology partner. Wren head of software development Stephen Hodges said: “As we continue to invest in our state-of-the-art tech and world-class facilities, we’re searching for talented developers to come and join us and play a major part in constantly evolving our software and processes. From state-of-the-art virtual reality to our cutting-edge kitchen planner program, there’s always something new going on at Wren, and our IT department plays a huge part in bringing these projects to life.” Positions that Wren Kitchens was looking to recruit for included a PHP or JavaScript developers, a technical development manager, a technical 3D artist and an iOS developer.
November 2021 · 13
The perfect partner to the Maris Free tap, the Maris Free hood is the natural choice for any kitchen.
prototype
To create the flowing, organic lines of the magnificent Maris Free hood, designer Dror Benshetrit looked to the natural world. The result is a hood quite like no other; one that delivers the high-end functionality customers expect from Franke, in a design that challenges convention in a most surprising and beautiful way.
Make it wonderful at
franke.co.uk
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