Providing the right look

By KATHERINE HOBY housing reporter

The number of apartments being built in central Auckland is making spin-off businesses boom.

Auckland woman Diana Malyon is riding a wave of success leasing furniture and creating fresh looks for apartments and homes on the market.

She is so passionate about providing clients with the right atmosphere that she often lends pieces from her own home to complete the right look.

Ms Malyon set up her business, DMI Home Stagers, seven years ago and was left sitting on one chair then.

"I haven't got a dining table right now," she says. "My friends have often laughed when they come around and I'm sitting on one lonely chair watching the TV."

She also offers her services as a diplomatic adviser to some people whose cluttered houses harbour many personal items not suitable for an open home.

The number of new apartments in the Auckland CBD has meant her business has "gone mad". At least two others, who worked with Ms Malyon, have followed her into the same business.

Experts estimate there will be 11,000 apartments in the Auckland CBD by the end of the year, 4000 of those built this year.

"When I first started I had to educate the agents about what I was doing," Ms Malyon said.

"Now I have more business than I know what to do with."

After opening her business with one house-lot of furniture, she now handles 350 or more properties a year.

The vendor pays at least $500 a week, for a minimum of four weeks, for a household look, which might include everything down to soap, towels and fresh fruit.

"We do pot plants, we do rugs, we even do photo frames complete with photos," she says.

The business also involves applying a little bit of tact to those living in houses for sale.

"I do have to advise people to get rid of the pottery they did 50 years ago or the little old couples' doilies and knick-knacks," she says.

"But we tell them that if they put the effort in, it will make all the difference in dollar terms."

Art Bureau managing director Susan Shand hires artworks to businesses, hospitals and directly to vendors for their open homes.

"Usually, for the houses, people are looking for something with impact," she says.

The works, which are all by New Zealand artists, are hired out individually.

The cost of hiring a piece depends on its value. A $5000 work would cost $200 to hire - whether the artwork is taken for the maximum of three months or for three days.

Prices start at $60 for a work by a lesser known artist, and the average is $120.

Kathryn West, a saleswoman for Barfoot & Thompson, says creating the right feel for a house can add thousands of dollars to the sale price.

"Furniture allows purchasers to get an idea of the true size of a room."

Ms West says sale properties which have sat empty for several months often sell quickly when furnished.

"It can honestly be the difference between selling a property and not."