Will kitchen extension add value - or ruin it for buyers?

[BillyDaveysDaughter]

Seems like an obvious question I know, but by extending our kitchen by 1.5m (and facilitating a utility area and an integral door to the garage), we will lose 1.5m of an already small garden.

It's a smallish 3 bed detached, cul-de-sac location. The garden will still have a good sized sunny patio (3m x 3m?) with a small L-shape of lawn around it, and a shingled corner for pots and my roses. But that may be considered too small for a family?

We don't have children so the garden is not critical to us - I only want space to sit in summer and somewhere to dry the washing. Extending the kitchen is more appealing to us, but will it exclude a big bracket of buyers when we come to sell in 5 years or so?

DH feels that the majority of new build family properties have precious little garden anyway...

It will depend on the buyer, but I think most would prefer the larger kitchen. According to this, kitchen and bath remodels add the most value (at least in the US).

Home Improvements

I've always felt that you should update the house so that it works best for you. Someone should agree when you go to sell.

I think 1.5m is neither here nor there really. Someone wanting a good sized garden wouldn't be interested in your property anyway. If you're planning to be there for another five years I'd definitely do the extension.

Also, for any buyers who would be put off by a marginally smaller garden, you will probably find just as many who are attracted by a utility room/ door to garage.

Forget about future buyers unless this is an investment property.

Do you need the extra space? If so, then do it. If not then don’t. Or be able bit more clever with the space and see if you can get the things you want without extending.

We saw two identical house on the same street.one had extended the kitchen, the other hadn't.

It changed the garden from quite small to small, but even though the one without the kitchen extension was much nicer, we ruled it out completely because we didn't want to do the kitchen work.

Though tbh, we just spent the extra because we could on a house with a big kitchen and a bigger garden.

Ok those responses are helpful - thanks, will report back to DH!