Add Value To Your Home With These Top 5 Tips!
With house prices currently at a record lows, and remortgage deals all but dried up, more people in the UK are choosing to stay put rather than move home. This way, homeowners can wait until the market is more favourable and in the meantime make some quite worthwhile changes to their home. There are huge financial benefits to making changes within the home, be them large or small, as they can significantly increase the price of the home. Bigger changes such as home renovations and extensions can prove to be sound financial investments providing they are done correctly.
The thing with bigger renovations is that you cannot expect an immediate return on the amount you spend. A return on your expenditure depends largely upon location and the state of the economic climate at the time of selling. Many homeowners find that they do not make any return at all from such drastic and expensive changes which is unfortunately the risk you take. Therefore, significant amendments should be treated firstly as a way to add improvement to your familys living and only later as a way to encourage a sale.
1 Add an extension to your home: This is perhaps one of the most common and rewarding ways to add value to your property. An extension can usually only successfully work on larger detached homes, although this by no means suggests you should rule it out if you live in a semi detached home for example. An extension will only add significant value to your property providing it is developed in the same style to the original property or becomes a major focal feature of your home. Similarly, an extension usually encroaches on the front or back garden of your property, and if the size of your garden is left disproportionate to the inside space of the home, you may find your property harder to sell.
Furthermore, adding an extension to your home has to add space that can be used constructively and in proportion to the rest of your inside space. For example, it would not be wise to add another bedroom if your kitchen or living room is small just as it would not be considered sensible to add another bedroom to a 4 bedroom property if you only have one bathroom. At the end of the day, the extension has to add something to your enjoyment of the property in addition to attracting a potential buyer, so weigh up all your options to decipher if an extension will be of actual benefit to you.
2 Loft Conversions: Conducting a loft conversion in a home is rapidly becoming a popular method of adding value to property. Not only does a loft conversion add quite a significant amount of space, but it can also modernise more traditionally styled homes. Loft conversions are much cheaper than full property extensions, with prices ranging from GBP 8000 to GBP 15000, and generally cause much less disruption. This is because most builders and developers construct scaffolding on the roof of the home, rather than on the outer walls of the building.
Additionally, planning permission is not always necessary for a loft conversion, so the time to complete a project is shortened to around one month. Whether your home can benefit from this type of development depends on the style and size of your loft space. For example the height of the roof space needs to exceed the minimum of 2.4 metres and a steeply pitched roof is regarded as ideal. Loft conversions can add as much as 20 percent onto the original value of your property; a significant amount considering the general disruption of the project is so minimal.
3 Add an en suite to a bedroom: Homes that are considered to have a master bedroom or just one larger bedroom than the rest could consider fitting an en suite. These are a fantastic way of adding value to a property as they require a minimal amount of space and can make a normal bedroom much more appealing. En suites can be extremely discreet, and so can even work in smaller bedrooms without reducing the size of the room itself too drastically. An unused walk in wardrobe for example would be the perfect size to convert directly into an en suite. However, an en suite should not be regarded as a replacement for an additional bathroom. In a property where there are multiple bedrooms and only one main bathroom, potential buyers with larger families will be less inclined to buy as an en suite will not solve that morning bathroom rush!
4 Extend into your basement: Older properties that already have a basement can really benefit from an extension below the main living space. Older basements tend to be used as added storage space and are often neglected. Refurbishing the cold, dark and damp area into an additional room can make your property much more attractive. This does not mean you have to sacrifice your vital storage space either, by adding storage racks and units in the refurbished room means you can still neatly store all your clutter. Extended basements are a popular choice to create office space or a room to just relax in as they are generally much quieter than other rooms in the home. As this type of extension involves underground space, insulation and heating will also have to be considered to ensure that the room remains an inviting and comfortable area.
Extending into a basement can also be an option to homes that do not already have underground space. Although, as I am sure you can expect, this will take much longer to complete, around 12 weeks and can cause a lot of disruption; many homeowners decide to temporarily move out until the work is completed. Similarly, this will cost quite a considerable amount to do, around GBP 80,000, as the house foundations have to be reset and expensive machinery is generally needed to dig below the property. This form of extension, on any level, is not a decision to be taken lightly.
5 Knock down internal wallsThis is perhaps one of the cheaper methods of adding value to property. The valuation market has changed considerably over the years, from a market that prioritised the amount of rooms in a property, to one that values square footage as the most important aspect to valuing a house. Knocking down internal walls is perhaps the simplest way to gain this extra square footage. It is a particularly popular method used by modern families, where communal spaces have to be larger in order to create a comfortably sized living space for larger families.
Similarly, knocking down a wall can add much more light to a property, in turn enhancing a more inviting atmosphere for both yourself and potential buyers. This type of home improvement can benefit most when used to join a kitchen with a dining room or a utility room. Utility rooms are commonly sought after in todays society, so by creating this extra space, your house will be much more appealing to the potential buyer. Go on; give your home that little bit of TLC!
About the Author:
James writes for Just Remortgages the leading website in the UK dedicated to providing the latest remortgage rates, and best remortgage deals in the market.
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