What renovation can we do in 40 k? Is it enough?

[Agashah]

We are considering buying this house and have a £40,000 budget for renovations. Is this amount sufficient? If so, how should we allocate the budget?

I hope the link works:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/148349060#/?channel=RES_BUY

Theoretical yes as it looks most cosmetic work however without a survey it's difficult to know!
Is the boiler in good working order? What about the electrics?
Personally I'd want to remove the conservatory/lean to and replace with a proper room/extension but that's definitely out of your budget.
So I think in answer to your question- how long is a piece of string?

How handy are you? You can do superficial renovations on a shoestring diy, but kitchens, bathrooms etc cost £££ professionally done

Have you got furniture?

it does need a new kitchen and bathroom. Bedrooms can be redecorated but the living room need some heavy work done.

If this was Cluedo I'd be offering "In the conservatory, over a dodgy step".
(what is that mark on the floor by the mop?)

£40k is going to get a hammering there. The kitchen needs doing, the bathroom needs doing, there's some moisture damage over the loo in the bathroom to be investigated (likely just be condensation/poor ventilation but you need someone to check), and you'll probably want to do something about the fireplace/plinth in the living room. Most of the carpets are either hideous or beyond cleaning from what can be seen in the photos.

Providing survey doesn't indicated that the roof needs any work (nothing obvious in the photo, but the property clearly hasn't had much love spent on it in a while) and your prepared to do the decorating yourself then your budget is tight but possibly doable depending upon local contractor rates.

I'd prioritise:

1. Kitchen
2. Bathroom
3. Bedroom carpets

Then review where you are. It's not worth tackling the living room unless you can do it all in one. The fireplace needs to be seen in person to make a decision. But there's no point doing the carpet in there if you're going to tackle either the fireplace or the '80s fashionable brick plinth, which are jobs that would need the carpet doing/redoing after they're tackled. If you keep the fireplace but get rid of the plinth, that's a sledgehammer job you can do yourself. But it'll need a plasterer to tidy up the wall afterwards.

First job would be checking and updating the existing electrics and heating system. After that kitchen and bathroom but fireplace may need replacing at same time as electric/heating. Be prepared to do a lot of basic preparation and labour yourself. You may be able just about to cover these jobs with the £40K if careful

Impossible to say without knowing details but personally I’d say no - that’s not nearly enough. And we just did a massive renovation. It really depends if you need a rewire, new boiler/radiators, if you want to get rooms plastered, new floors, what condition the windows are in. Consider you own skills and time as that makes a massive difference. I’d never do a renovation again…

I’d say 40k might be enough if you aren’t going to be doing cosmetic stuff for a while. The Kitchen and bathroom are going to eat a large chunk of that money, and that’s just to purchase the cupboards and bath etc etc, not even including labour.
You definitely need to get an extensive homebuyers survey done though. We were buying a house in a similar condition until we had the survey done and the hidden damage was extensive. Estate Agents estimated it would need about £50k to do up, but the survey revealed it would be almost double that just to get the house liveable.
Plus, we’re always told that whatever you think the work will cost, add a good few thousand more to that as nothing every costs what you’re initially told it will.
I think it would be impressive to do that house up for £40k even doing some of the work yourselves.

It says its already sold subject to contact. Have you put in an offer and allowed the sellers to remove it from the market if you’re not sure if you want it.

I think 40k won’t cover new bathroom, new kitchen and new carpets. They’re very probably is other work to do as there always is with houses.

Damp above the loo as PP says. It would be a push to do the cosmetic stuff, depends on wiring, roof etc.

No it isn't enough to do it how you probably want it. It's enough to do the initial things but you will probably need double that to get it really nice and modern

There's a leak or something above the shower room and two bedrooms.

The decor is dated, but you knew that.
The kitchen ceiling needs sorting out.

We did a house like that but without the damp patches for about 5k. Kitchen doesn't need redoing - just switch the worktops and change the flooring. Repaint the lot and new carpets/lino throughout. Ideally we would have replastered throughout and put in a new bathroom/kitchen but it looked miles better anyway, even if it wasn't Instagram ready!

Thank you all for your suggestions. These were very helpful. The property is amazing but I understand now it requires a lot of work and budget so we need to think hard if it is for us.

Do you know a builder, roofer or a surveyor who could come with you to have a look? If it is structurally sound and you aren't looking for something out of IG, it might not be that expensive initially, and you can get things done in your own time. You'd need a full survey.

I like it, and you can be happy in a home that doesn't have all the latest decor.

We could do it because DH can do plumbing / gas and we know builders, electricians and plasterers etc. and we can do our own tiling.
As long as the roof , windows and the wiring is ok then £40k would be more than enough if you can do stuff like tiling / laying flooring etc.
You can get a whole house carpeted for under £1k, including underlay.
I’d say £20k for new kitchen and bathroom, £5kish if it needs rewiring so plenty left over for the cosmetic stuff.
We were quoted £5k for a full rewire on our 1970’s house last year but only needed a new consumer unit at £800, which included running power to the new, detached garage.
It wouldn’t phase me but it depends how handy you are imho.

Several people have mentioned wiring, it's unlikely a full rewire is needed.

If you like the property and location, get a survey done and a professional opinion on the most awkward bits - wiring and heating. Because if they're ok it is doable.

A lot of 70’s houses have a dire lack of power sockets, if you need a lot more then a full rewire can kill two birds.
We were lucky, we were able to spur off the airing cupboard power point, which is above a large walk in cupboard/pantry so could run trunking down the wall for extra sockets downstairs, thus avoiding chiselling out walls.

If you were careful you could get the kitchen and bathroom done for £25k between them, and that would leave £15k to cover getting rid of the conservatory and decorating throughout. That’s doable if you don’t get any nasty surprises but you’ll need to be strict with the budget.

It’s got a lovely open, sunny garden.

Is this a potential long term home in a good location? If so then I would only worry about stuff which needs doing rather than the cosmetic choices.

If the kitchen, bathroom etc are usable you can do them over the next few years. Dated decor and cupboards work just fine IME, focus on the essential work and do the rest as time and money permit.