DIY remains very popular

Operators of the independent hardware stores in Ireland, as well as their suppliers, are organised into the Hardware Association Ireland (HAI), which sees itself as the national representative body for hardware/DIY retailers and builders' merchants, as well as manufacturers/distributors to the trade. In its directory of members, the association lists more than 370 companies; around 40 per cent of these are retailers or merchants and 60 per cent are suppliers.
These statistics by the HAI depict a good branch development of late. In 2018 there was only one month, March, with a decline in revenues compared to the same month in the previous year. Five months even show double-digit percentage growth rates; in the fourth quarter, the cumulative increase amounted to 9 per cent. Annemarie Harte, managing director of the HAI, explained the details in an interview with DIY International.
A survey of consumers, which the association published last October, is also suggestive of a lively market environment. Two thirds (67 per cent) of the survey respondents indicated that they are planning on renovating or redecorating their homes within the next twelve months. Of these consumers with concrete plans, almost one third (31 per cent) wanted to spend more than EUR 5 000 and as many as nine per cent more than EUR 15 000.

Something which causes a certain amount of uncertainty for the association, who commissioned the study, was the motivation of the renovators. This is because only five per cent had stated the Home Renovation Incentive Scheme as a reason. This scheme allowed homeowners to claim tax relief by way of a tax credit at 13.5 per cent of any qualifying expenditure incurred on repair, renovation or improvement work, carried out by tax compliant contractors. The tax incentive, which was introduced in 2013, was finally discontinued at the end of 2018 after having been extended several times.
But a certain amount of astonishment outside Ireland was caused by a different result from the survey. What is meant is not the generally quite high share of do-it-yourselfers with 61 per cent of those planning a home project saying that where possible they would do the job themselves, but the results from the younger generation. Unlike the European trend, it appears that the…