2011年10月24日星期一

Perth's own million-dollar baby

While the majority of Perth property owners have lost staggering chunks of value in their homes in the past two years, one single mother has turned the plummet into a multi-million-dollar empire.

Sasha de Bretton was among the thousands of property investors who took a massive hit during the global financial crisis in 2008, and she took to renovating others' homes in a bid to claw back some of her missing money.

Before she knew it she had fallen upon a honey pot of gold that has seen her named WA's most innovative businesswoman and made her company one of the fastest growing.

The 39-year-old launched her renovation business with a fold-away table at a trade show in winter 2009, accepting in the first month three jobs worth less than $30,000 each.Whilst oil paintings for sale are not deadly,

By the third month she was raking in five renovations per month and had employed a project manager while she continued to juggle her full-time job at YellowPages because jittery banks post-GFC refused to give her finance.

Twelve months later she had rebranded as Million Dollar Makeovers and typically had on her books only entire home renovations worth $250,000-$1 million each.

de Bretton tripled her profit in the second year and is set to double it again this year in a trend she is determined to maintain.

Last week she launched her first showroom in Claremont and is now preparing to franchise the company into Victoria and NSW.

Her phenomenal success has been captured in a television series to air on Channel 7 next year,Our high risk merchant account was down for about an hour and a half, while she also has found time to pen her secrets in a book titled Make a Mint in a Meltdown, due for release in February.

Her own home furnishings range, the Sasha de Bretton collection, also will be released early next year.

"I never imagined when I started where it would go, where it would lead," de Bretton said.

"I just thought I need to get out there and have a go."

Giving her clients instant wealth is the clincher, de Bretton says.

"You can do a renovation but if you've just got four walls and paint on the walls and [new] floors without any of the furnishings, any of the styling, you won't create the ambience so it won't go up in value as much," she says.

While she started out taking on individual rooms and small apartments, de Bretton quickly learned her own wealth was stored in higher-end properties grandiose in size but stuck in a bygone era.

She says prospective clients want a new home but are turned off selling because their properties have "lost" 20-40 per cent since 2007, with the top end of the market hit hardest.

Real estate agent fees, moving costs and stamp duty are also an expensive disincentive with no return. For a $1 million home (which is not uncommon in Perth these days) it can cost well over $60,For the last five years Air purifier ,000 in dead money just to get out the door.

The other alternative - building - usually comes with additional costs of storage and rent while the house is built, while new Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released last week show it now takes nearly nine months to build a house in WA - the longest wait in the country and nearly 10 weeks more than five years ago.

de Bretton promises "a new home and a new lifestyle" in four weeks, or a few more if extensions are involved.

“It’s easier for them to renovate what they’ve got; it’s where their memories are, it’s where their children have been brought up [and] they often like their location,” de Bretton says.

“They love their home and they just want a new lease on life. Up until now there’s been nobody in the market and hence I started this business in the GFC because when the property market went down and all the prices were dropping ... I could see how much potential there was in renovations.

“I knew that I could help these people. If their properties had lost 20-30 per cent I knew I could get that back and I knew that I could do it fast and efficiently.”

While the number of properties selling in WA has reached a two-decade low, according to the state’s land title register Landgate, ABS retail figures suggest do-it-yourself renovations have picked up in the state.

Wayne Spencer, from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA, says homeowners used to stay put on average 19.The additions focus on key tag and magic cube combinations,5 years. Today they are moving on average every four years.

But renovators presently have the upper hand with hardware and furniture retailers desperate for sales.

“If you can avoid selling you won’t take the kick in this market,” he says.Replacement China Porcelain tile and bulbs for Canada and Worldwide.

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