Adding an extra toilet might add value to your property or increase rental income.
Camera IconAdding an extra toilet might add value to your property or increase rental income. Credit: Supplied

There’s a toilet takeover in Aussie homes, but does it add value?

Anthony KeaneNews Corp Australia

A DELIGHTFUL discovery floated into my inbox this month.

Tomorrow is World Toilet Day. And better still, the 16th World Toilet Summit is being held in Australia next week.

All this toilet talk got me thinking, as most people would, about toilets and real estate, and how the humble dunny has been moving up in the world.

Decades ago toilets used to live in people’s backyards, away from the main building. Then they moved inside and started multiplying.

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Modern homes have at least two toilets, often three — especially in two-storey properties. We now see ensuites attached to more than one bedroom.

So does adding toilets boost the value of a property?

The most value from any second toilet is when the first toilet is broken, but property experts say they can improve resale value or rental income for an investment property. Some estimate 10-20 per cent rental income rises if combined with an extra shower.

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Most people don’t simply add a new loo, instead choosing to do a whole bathroom. But if you’re not flush with cash, a well-placed toilet can improve a home even if it’s squeezed between an outside wall and the boundary.

Toilets have moved from backyards to inside our homes, and now are multiplying rapidly.
Camera IconToilets have moved from backyards to inside our homes, and now are multiplying rapidly. Credit: Supplied

If you choose to extend, it’s going to cost you. New bathrooms typically cost $20,000-$30,000 but can be much more if you go for flashy fixtures and fittings.

If you’re not flush with spare cash, a lone toilet costs less, but can still be pricey, and you’d want to make sure it’s in a good spot that won’t send offending odours wafting into a kitchen or dining room. Second toilets typically add more value than third toilets.

It can easily cost thousands. Simply upgrading an old toilet to a new one can set you back more than $1000, which I discovered recently when my cistern — only eight years old — lost all bladder control.

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People can also upgrade to a new toilet to save money on water. An old-style model can use up to 12 litres per flush, compared with three litres for new water-saving models. A family of five people each doing four flushes a day may be paying an extra $220 a year if their loo is not new.

This brings us back to World Toilet Day. It’s a serious day, with a serious message about tackling the global sanitation crisis, so we shouldn’t take the piss out of it.

Globally, about 4.5 billion people live without a proper household toilet that safely disposes their waste. Backed by the United Nations, there’s an international push to give everyone a safe, working toilet by 2030. At the World Toilet Summit 2017 in Melbourne, sanitation specialists will discuss inventions, products and projects.

The World Toilet Day website has plenty of information including a video that warns viewers it contains graphic scenes of human waste, but they’re really just cartoon poos dancing on a beach.

When more than half of the planet doesn’t have a proper toilet, our desires to add a second, third and more to our homes look a little off-colour.

But if you want to squeeze some extra value out of a home, a new loo might do the trick.

@keanemoney