AIBU to ask how much your loft cost

[Grumpasaurus]

Posting here for traffic, sorry.

DH and I are in the process of buying our first flat (hooray!). As it's in London, and London property prices are nuts even in zone 2, we are buying a flat and then converting the loft into a third bedroom, extra bathroom, and playroom.

I met today with an architect whose work I like, but she said it would cost around 55k all in. That seems high compared to what I have seen online, but includes everything down to the light switches (and the electricity to turn them on!).

Can I ask how much yours cost, what you had down, and a break down of fees? Why are some quotes so low?

We would be doing a rear dormer with a rig wall (is that right- a smaller pop out to the rear side of the property?).

Thank you!

A friend was over the other day and hers is costing about the same. I thought £40k - £60k was normal.

I’m in London too.

Recently in the family, £60k in Harrogate for a full width rebuild (not just a dormer) raising the roof at the back of the house to make one room+ensuite from the loft. Including all fittings and decorating.

We are in a flat, and looking at £30k for a basic loft room. I can see how all the extras start to add up.

£28k
Two bedrooms one ensuite. Including everything expect bathroom furniture and tiles and fire doors. So including all painting, radiators , sockets etc.

That's remarkably cheap! Whereabouts are you?

Liverpool, so bit far for me to recommend the company I used.

Sorry realised you are not the op Spoon.

Seems a bit pricey to me. We had ours done in 2016 and the builder charged us £36k. We live in a terraced house and had two bedrooms and a shower room built in the loft with a rear dormer. The only cost on top of the £36k was the bathroom furniture, tiles and tiling.

Done in 2017 - approx £35k in South London including VAT, though was extra for decorating and sanitary ware etc.

Have the other flat owners given permission for you to convert the loft - normally it is shared rather than owned by the top flat?

We’re halfway through ours - standard Victorian terrace - dormer on the main part of the house and another on the outrigger that will give us 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. The initial contract is around £45K but this doesn’t include sanitary ware, paint, tiles and tiling - this will all come as extra. We’re also replacing guttering and other bits and bobs whilst the scaffolding is up as it makes sense to do it now. We’ve also upgraded various bits as we’ve gone along which is adding to the cost (eg wooden stairs rather than MDF), but sensible decisions in the long run. I expect once we’ve taken into account carpets, curtains etc we’ll be in the region of £60k.

Ours was 50k all in (London)

This includes everything, including sanitary ware, tiles for bathroom, built in wardrobe, decorating, carpets (including redecorating and recarpeting entire hallway), building regs, fire alarms etc. This is for 2 bedrooms and an ensuite.

I would say your quote is pretty reasonable.

We didn't have an architect, so saved on fees.

North east England, £30k all in

We’re in the middle of getting quotes for our loft converted-3 bed semi in south east near London. It will be a hip to gable conversion with dormer. Quotes so far have all been around £48k inc replacing roof tiles, but not including decorating, sanitary wear etc.

West Yorkshire, 4 bed semi, just had our quote through for work to start in November, raising the gable end, no dormer, 2 velux window plus regular window on gable end, one double bedroom plus ensuite ,£28,000 if we wanted a day the price would increase by 5000

Sorry, if we wanted a dormer that should say.

Original quote was £40k. We're an end of terrace in zone 4 London and got a 2 bed 1 shower room conversion. By the time we had a couple of upgrades (bigger windows, more storage etc) and paid for bathroom stuff, tiles, carpets, decorating etc it was closer to £50k.

60k including bathroom and flooring five years ago Greater London

Mine came free with the house.

We did ours last year, came to £66k all in (so decorating and soft furnishing). We needed planning permission so therefore and architect which bumped up the fees abit. We lived in a first floor Victorian flat and also had to buy the loft from the freeholder. That was another 23k plus solicitors fees. It’s been an enormous cost but I’m so grateful. Grateful we can keep living in zone 2 and grateful for my home. The legal side of things took two years. It’s been a painful process

Do check with your borough how likely it is that you will get planning permission, not all boroughs will allow for this. Also check with your freeholder or joint freeholder how much they want for the space. Get a good conveyancing solicitor to check your lease. You want this to be watertight before making the flat purchase if you have your heart set on a loft.

You also need to check that when you own the loft you also own or have permission to build on the airspace above it for the outer rigger. Yes really. You need to make sure you own the air. This is what took out months and months and months to sort out.
Our freeholder still owns the air and we couldn’t buy it off them. This very neArly cost us a fortune and meant we could only have had the one bedroom.
Owning air....who knew

60k incl bathroom, carpets, painting walls etc. Did include 11(!) velux windows. Hants.

There are so many variables you can't really compare, some lofts are easily converted others almost require a new roof, then there are the finishes, can get laminate or engineered floor, there goes a couple of grand, b&q bathroom or designer that could be a few thousand. You are comparing apples and pears

Ditto what Lndnmummy says. Leaseholders do not own the "air" like a freeholder does. Also your lease will have provisions about alterations. The roof tiles will almost certainly be owned by the freeholder. Please investigate this before setting your heart on a loft conversion.

Ps we had a lift conversion about 3 years ago, was about £30k all in.

Ours was 48k and included a rear dormer, shower room and one bedroom. It included fixtures and fittings, we just had to paint and put down carpet. It's gorgeous, easily the best room in the house.