Currently Living in IP, Want To Renovate - Best Method?

Hi all,

I'd appreciate some comments on this, as I'm sure there are a few ways to do it.
Currently, myself and the wife, are living in our first purchase - it's a 2 bedroom unit in the suburb of Mitcham VIC.
We want to make some renovations to freshen the place up, and then move on to our next home - and hopefully keep this one as a rental.

We estimate the total value of renovations to be in the order of $30k.

Currently, we don't have this money on hand. However, we purchsed the property privately for what we think is about $50k under the market value.

What would be the best approach to obtaining the money to do renovations?
• Get house valued and use equity?
• Borrow
• Other..?

A further question, if anyone has experience in renovations to a 2 bedroom house - is it worth knocking out a wall to open up the kitchen? Behind the wall is a toilet, which we would like to move into the bathroom.. and then redo the bathroom - tiling, vanity & shower.

FYI other reno's include: painting all inside, new kitchen benchtop, paving the back yard, building a pergola, new carport, build a small landing/deck at the front entrance, and maybe a front fence.

Cheers-
Tom

Or is there any benefit in buying the next property - hopefully a long term PPOR, and then converting this loan to an investment property loan and then conducting the renovations?

This would depend on LVR and valuation and your borrowing capacity.

When you change the use of the property you don't actually change the purpose of the loan - the interest just becomes deductible.