How much is it worth?

[MrsDarcy4092]

Hi
Currently we have a kitchen which is 3m deep by 3m wide. We can (fairly) easily make this 3m deep by 5.5m wide with a design which will allow an orangery addition at a later date to create a family area. My question is how much would this side extension be worth to you?
It's going to cost £9500 just for the build and drains. It seems a lot for an extra 2.5 meters but it will then be a decent size kitchen diner with family room potential.

It depends where you are and what you paid for the house in the first place etc etc. But I would say 3m x 3m is small for a kitchen and you are likely (not guaranteed) to increase the value of the house by the cost of the build by adding that space.

Having said that however, unless you're planning to move, don't worry too much about the financials - this is your home and will no doubt improve the way you live as a family. Is that worth £10k or thereabouts to you - if you stay for a number of years, the value is likely to change anyway by the time you come to sell.

It also depends on the size of the house currently. I had a very small one bed house a few years ago, I added 2.5 m to it with an orangery type thing and doubled its value.
My current house is four bed, an orangery would be lovely and I'd certainly use it but it would be neither here nor there when it came to the overall value of the house.

Depends. Side returns are hard to get the additional value per square foot, however it will make it a hell of a lot nicer to live in, and easier to sell. If not an exact £ for £ return.

More living space adds value - more important is the increase of your quality of life whatever you do to your house. That is what really makes it worthwhile.

it will make a massive difference to our lives as we can have a proper table in the kitchen and one day add the orangery to get living space in the kitchen too. its not edactly a side extension, its knocking into an outside loo and an outside cupboard so the actual footprint of the house will not increase but the inside area of the house will, and how we use the house will change massively as will also allow us space to put doors from kitchen directly into the garden.

Were in a London suburb and its a 5 bed house so the ktichen at the moment is really small for how big the house is. you could argue it will still be small at 5.5 by 3 but it will be much better than it is. its just an extra £9500k which is hard to swallow

or do we save 9500 and just rearrange the kitchen so we can get a small round table for 4 in - which we only ever seat 4 in the kitchen anyway.

Where is the dining room in relation to the kitchen?

I would sat 9500 is not a lot for an extension (size is somewhat irrelevant as cost to size is not a linear relationship).

Is that inclusive of VAT?

the dining room is next door but we are somewhat old fashioned in that we really do not want to knock the wall down between the two rooms and we really prefer having a separate dining room and casual dining in the kitchen.

it is inclusive of VAT. on top of that is obviously electrics, plastering, plumbing, kitchen units worktop appliances. but then we would need all of that regardless of extension as our kitchen is currently at empty room.

Are those spaces which are still usable (even though you access them from outside)? You're not actually extending or adding any square footage then (which means there's no kind of automatic assumption really that it should add value) but as you say, it will make a difference to you.

yes, we use the outside cupbard and outside loo quite a lot. were not adding square footage but you could argue its adding value or making easier to sell because if ever sold and had the bigger kitchen people wouldn't be disappointed with the size of kitchen but if we don't extend then it is a much smaller kitchen in comparison to other houses this size so then it will either put people off or they will knock money off their offer.

but, in terms of for us, on the one hand it makes a big difference as we will gain more space and an area to have casual dining, at the moment in a 3.2 x 3.6 kitchen i'm not sure we can really get a table in easily. maybe i'm wrong. On the other hand we lose an outside loo (handy for bbqs and when working in garden/ tradespeople. and we lose the outside cupbard - handy for bikes and spare fridge freezer for bbqs and garden parties

£9500 sounds incredibly cheap... We were quoted £65k for our side return.

£9500 is nothing in London. Especially if you have a 5 bed house that could be worth anything up to £3m (and a lot less depending where you are). Even if it was only £500k house value that £9500 is tiny and will be negligible next to the capital appreciation of your house. Unless you're in some black spot.

Personally I'd probably do the whole lot and add the orangery at the same time if I could afford it. If I couldn't afford the whole lot but was doing the kitchen any way I'd do the extra work. £9500 for build and drains in Londln seems v v cheap.

i guess it seemed expensvie to us because theres no actual extension being built, the walls are there and the foundations. its just knocking down an internal wall and bricking up three door ways and adding in 3 steels.

but you are totally right, when compared with the overall house cost its absolutely nothing. We cant afford to do the conservatory right now but the kitchen design is such it can be added at a later date without affecting work we have already done so thats good.

I would do it, especially as your house has 5 beds. It needs a good sized kitchen. If you are currently doing work to the kitchen surely it's the ideal time. You don't want to regret it down the line, when you've already spent money on the kitchen as it currently stands. Have you looked on right move etc to gauge an idea of value it may add?

Steels alone you're usually looking at about £2.5k each. Less if more than one because you save on labour. So that sounds a fair price.

thank you.

its hard to tell with rightmove. a neighbours house sold this year for 200k more than we paid for ours and it has the kitchen knocked into the outbuildings as we are planning. but we moved in 2 years ago so house prices have gone up and we bought probate so got 150k off the asking price at the time. Its hard to tell. But it certainly will make it easier to sell if we ever wanted to.

If the dinning room is next door you could knock through and keep the spaces separate - ours has a breakfast bar so it's still two rooms and I can see the kids -

I think you should research other options

Is this a typo? Less than £10k for an extension! In London!

If you'd said £95k I wouldn't have batted an eyelid. Hence the question.

If you read the post down its not really an extension just knocking some walls down and putting in 3 very short steels and bricking up 3 door ways.

OP to go back to your original question - I don't think it is necessarily automatically worth anything financially, as you're effectively just rejigging current space, and have answered your own question I think by saying it makes it more saleable. People looking for a 5 bed house will undoubtedly want a decent sized kitchen. But saleability and value are obviously 2 different things.

Your question asked what would it be worth? As I have said upthread, for me, personally, it would be worth £10k just because of the way my family would live.

Thank you. I think I've come to the same conclusion and I'm really reassured that most people on here think it's a really good price to get the extra space in the kitchen.

Sorry OP I should have RTFT.

You're getting a terrific deal. I'm in the trade and I'm jealous . Even factoring in paying building control fees and possibly planning permission and party wall fees you are onto a winner.