The price of home improvement skyrocketed by 17% in January, with the average person paying an extra £379 for home improvements last month, versus prices paid in 2021, according to the latest data from Checkatrade.
According to the data, the categories worst affected include building (+38.6%), tiling (+29.8%) and bricklaying (+21.8%). Inflation, material price increases and intense customer demand are all thought to be behind the price rises.
January was the seventh successive month of price increases for customers, which have risen a staggering 61% between January 2021 and January 2022.
However, rising prices are doing little to quell intense customer demand. Checkatrade saw its busiest ever January, with 4.1 million searches for its checked and vetted tradespeople.
Mike Fairman, CEO at Checkatrade, said: “We always recommend that homeowners who are planning improvements make a contingency budget in case of unexpected costs, and this has become particularly important while we continue to see such uncertainty in the market. Inflation is really biting the price of home improvement and is big a contributing factor to the price increases we’re seeing, as the cost of raw materials continues to soar.
"This doesn’t seem to be putting off homeowners, however, and some price increases we’ve seen could be further exacerbated by homeowners tackling larger projects around their homes."