Would you bother extending in this scenario?

[BettySuarez]

We are torn between extending or moving home.

Given the cost of stamp duty and moving expenses we are edging towards extending.

House is currently worth about 250,000 and think extension will cost approx 35,000 with extra for new kitchen and flooring.

The plan would be to extend the kitchen outwards, knock down conservatory and replace with a proper room which will form an L shaped living area with the kitchen.

We are only planning on staying in this area for another 8 years or so though.

Does anyone know roughly how much value you can add to a property by adding an extension? We won't be adding an extra room as such. I really don't think anyone would pay more than 275,000 for a house in this area although 8 years from now it could be worth a bit more?

If you have extended, has it been worth it in terms of increased property value?

We have just done very similar -knocked through from kitchen to dining and added extension to form large L shaped room with double set of bifolds.

Cost around £20k and probably added similar to house but the value to us has been in staying in a location we love. We couldn't find anything near to what we wanted in a decent location for less than £100k more so kind of made the decision for us.

Love the room, we use it all the time and feels well worth it compared to paying out £9k plus for stamp duty plus all the hassle

Thanks Jackstini, that's really helpful.

So have you had the house value confirmed?

We are not expecting to recoup all of the cost but don't want to lose out too much either

You are in that dangerous area of just around the 250k stamp duty threshold. So unless the extension is going to take the house value up towards 300k you might find that buyers would try to knock you down to 250 anyway.

Not revalued yet but the planning people & architecy both said the same thing. Has taken ours from around 225 to 245 though so we would still expect under the stamp duty threshold if we sold - which we won't as we love it!

Thanks jackstini and glad that you are happy with your extension.

Googlenut, other houses on the esstate that are excatly the same as ours (same developers model), tend to go for the 255,00 to 260,000 mark. We think that ours would currently go for a little less as it is quite 'lived in' and we still have the original kitchen/bathrooms which are now in need of updating.

So the homes around here are breaking the 250,000 mark (just).

I think that our next step is to talk to some local estate agents. Get the home valued now and then ask them their opinions on value after extension.