Worth doing loft conversion in first floor maisonette?

[TurquoiseDress]

Hello all

We are a couple with 2DC- one in reception and the other several months old.

Recently had our property purchase fall through sadly (vendor decided to take off the market and that they didn’t want to sell after all!)

This was in Beckenham where we currently rent now.

On my daily scour of Rightmove I’ve seen a 2 bed first floor maisonette slightly further out in West Wickham, looks like it has been on market a long time and just reduced again.

Have been discussing with DH whether to sort out a viewing. I’m wondering whether we could do a loft conversion for a 3rd bedroom!

Obviously it’d be much easier to buy a 3 bedroom house, but financially this is totally impossible.

What do people think? I’ve no experience or real idea about this sort of thing- know it’d cost about 50k.

We would love to have 3 bedrooms- but not sure if adding a loft conversion to a first floor flat would really be worth it?

Here’s the property link:

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/46067194

It's very common where I live - if you Google Warner flat loft conversion you can see some examples.

If you plan more children though, it would be a short term solution, and possibly not worth the hassle and cost.

The second one seems better value

Thank you for the info about Warner flat loft conversions!

I've been doing lots of research.

DH is kind of lukewarm to the idea of moving away from Beckenham, not quite up for viewing these properties, which is frustrating.

The 2 bed maisonette is lovely and modern looking as it's been fully updated, however, looking into the details it's only 50 metres square living area so that would be a massive squash for all 4 of us.

My only comparison is that we previously lived in a purpose built apartment that was 68 metres square and that did not feel big enough at times, especially when we had friends come over for dinner etc.

Plus doing a loft conversion looks like it would cost in the region of 50k

By this reasoning, the second property would be a better bet as the work has been done already, but it requires modernisation.

noticed that it's been on the market since May 2018, wanting offers in excess of 350k

I just want DH to agree to a viewing or two, he's still very pissed off after our previous property fell through!

Re areas, have you considered Penge? You might find more options in your budget than in the slightly more suburban areas further out, and you’re stil very near all the amenities of Beckenham. (I live in Penge and am obvs massively biased!!) . E.g. (apologies for non clicky link, I don’t know how to do it):

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-54035961.html

I'd just say for both Beckenham or penge, where are you thinking for secondary school? Options aren't amazing around there if you aren't in Langley catchments. You might want to look more towards Bromley or Hayes depending on sex of kids. WW might get you into Hayes, you need to check. If you are buying and you have a child in reception already surely you want to think about this.

@Secondsop

Thank you for the link!
Not considered Penge, definitely not on our radar at all, will take a look on Rightmove

Yes secondary school is a consideration, but DC1 is not yet 5 and it does seem a long way off.

We figured that we'll probably have at least one if not two moves before then. It'd be different if we were looking for our 'forever' home and of course would be better not to have to move again, but unfortunately budget doesn't stretch to much.

It's true though, Beckenham has generally fabulous primary schools but there is not much in the way of decent secondaries.

I've read about the Langley schools, but think we'd need to live either West Wickham direction or Park Langley (no chance whatsoever!) to ensure we're close enough!

@Starface you do make an excellent point about secondary schools and I agree it’s worth thinking about whether thus matters to you at present or not. If you are pretty set on a second move before secondary then I can see the merit of finding somewhere that works for primary and then re-evaluating. A few years to go for that for me too (oldest child is in year 1) but at present our plan is (in the following order) to shoot for Kingsdale and the Harris Academies (bearing in mind lottery nature of it but if we get it for child 1 then we’re set for the rest, consider private, or (if DH can get on board with single sex), move what would literally be 1.5 miles down the road for us to Langley catchment / consider the grammars. Holding out at present to see the directions the schools go in eg there’s a new Harris Academy in Beckenham, and Kingsdale (which I would adore, and which is geographically one of the nearest to us) enlarged its intake both this year and last year so you never know, but if that’s an important thing at the moment then you might be less happy to see how the next few years pan out with the secondaries.

If you are going further out and going to do a loft conversion at £50,000 for that sort of money you could get a house.

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-58540395.html

Share of freehold possibly
Leasehold almost no chance

If you are looking at £300,000 then spending a further £50,000 on converting a loft space and going nearly 3 miles from your ideal location why not just buy a 3 bedder in the first place.

There are quite a few houses with gardens come up on Rightmove.

Personally unless you are desperate to move I would wait a couple of months.

Atm we have Brexit and there just isn’t the choice.

@Oliversmumsarmy

Yes you are right re spending the extra £££ to do a loft conversion, been googling like mad and thinking it over for the last few days.

With those 2 properties that I have linked, at the end of the day they are still essentially first floor flats/maisonettes whether you stick a room in the loft or not.

There are quite a few houses with gardens come up on Rightmove
What kind of location are they in?

We are not desperate to move per se, but it has been such a long road to get to this point, we just want to get on with it!

In a way though, like I said to DH, maybe it's a sign and all for the best that our property purchase fell through recently.

I suppose that with Brexit, many vendors are probably sitting tight for now- but who knows, maybe if they do not sell now they will lose x% off their sale price several months down the line...or the opposite of course.

Lots and lots to think about for us

@Oliversmumsarmy

Thank you for that link, am just taking a look!

I just put into right move 3 bedrooms within 3 miles of Beckenham because the West Wickham place you were considering was about 3 miles from Beckenham.

I have found that in a lot of cases that the loft extension doesn’t add to the value of the house/flat etc above what you have paid for it.

I would rather spend £320,000 on a 3 bed house that needed a bit of cosmetic updating and spend the £30,000 adding value to the place than adding an extra bedroom in the loft which is a far bigger job.

Hi Turquoise, how did your property search goes? I see it's been some time since this was last updated. We too were looking at maisonette, and we are now in the process of exchanging contract. We are also looking for the possibility of a loft conversion. So it'd be good to get some insight.

FYI, we did too saw the 3 bed with loft conversion, but we weren't ready with the mortgage at the time. I wonder if it was you to purchased it? lol

Anyway, good luck with your property and conversion.