One of the most common questions we get from our clients is ‘How much budget should I allocate for home automation or a home cinema?’ Well if you are guilty of the same curiosities, we’ll unpack some of the details of how to allocate your spend on home automation and luxury home cinema options in this post. While there is no exact number we can give you when it comes to home automation and cinemas, we can give you a few recommendations and tips we have accumulated over the years since 2003.

First, let’s dive into home automation. An international trend we have been seeing over the years is that a homeowner should look at spending anything between 5-15% of the total homes build on low voltage technology, meaning things such as cameras, alarms, networks, wireless technology, audio, visual, control systems and all things home automation. If you are looking for a return on your investment, then we recommend you edge toward the 5% of the total build. However, if you are looking for all the bells and whistles at a high level, we recommend looking at spending closer to the 15% of the total homes build. This percentage is also dependent on the level and size of the home. While you may be thinking; this is complicated, luckily we are able to give you a good estimation once we have had an appointment to discuss your needs and once we have evaluated your home.

When analysing the budget allocation for a home cinema, this is a very different conversation as there are many more aspects to consider. Like a car, you could either drive a half million rand car or a five million rand one, how do you decide which to go for? We often advise our clients to look at what they spend on their kitchen and compare that to the cinema, it is normally one for one. The amount you are looking to spend on a home cinema is also dependent on if you are going to be staying in the house for a long period of time, if it is for just yourself or your family and if it is something special that you are going to use all the time as a kind of break away from the hustle and bustle.

A BNC cinema is functional, well-designed and is state of the art, which means that you do not have to upgrade it often and therefore have longevity. A home cinema can cost anywhere between 1 million rand and 20 million rand, it all depends on the size of the space available, how far you want to take it from a design point of view and what your expectation is. In conclusion, there is no definite answer to how much you should spend, it is your space, your home that you spend time in every day, therefore you need to allocate what you feel is right to put toward your dream. We will always be there to guide you, but it’s up to you to decide on what you spend to make your dreams become a reality.