Differentiated view of the home improvement boom

Will the boom on the DIY market triggered by Covid-19 continue this year? And was it a boom at all? These are the questions which Reinier Zuydgeest, Managing Consultant at USP Marketing Consultancy, in the Global DIY-Network, has been concerned with. For the DIY retailers, according to his analysis on the basis of the European Home Improvement Monitor, it was a boom.  However from a consumer perspective, he was forced to discover that the overall spending for the home improvement market in 2020 dropped by 1.5 per cent. This is due to the fact that the costs of services by tradesmen are also included in this perspective, and they have dropped. The trend towards do-it-for-me, which has been observed for several years, came to a stop last year. However Zuydgeest expects that this will set in again soon - ageing society is the current buzzword - even if the labour shortage may put certain limits on this.
He paid special attention to the target group of the millennials, i.e. the 18 to 34 year-olds. They carried out significantly more DIY projects last year. Although all age-groups do show a "high willingness to do home improvement jobs" in the future, the millennials in particular are more enthusiastic here, he says.
Overall, there will be a slow shift from decorative to more constructive home improvement jobs, Zuydgeest expects. Total spending will also rise slightly, not least because expenditure on summer holidays will also be lower in 2021 than in previous years and, as a result, more budget will be available for home improvement.