Have you done expensive renovations to your home that you know don’t / won’t add value?

[another20]

.....how far did you go with it and did it upset you. I am spending £££££ now (classic over time and over budget) reworking layout - not extending - so v costly and probably minimal return on investment. Maybe just panicking now as property values not holding in my area! I suppose I am hoping that I am not doing anything that will devalue at least...

We did an extension that probably won't add that much value compare to how much it cost. However, we needed the space and intend to live her for 20 years so will make full use of it.

I think it is pretty common to do a renovation/extension that costs way more than you would spend if you were doing it for profit reasons only.

If it will make a big difference to your life living there, and you have no immediate plans to sell then why worry?

Also it will probably make the house easier to sell if what you are doing would appeal to most people, even if it doesn't add as much value.

Yep. We like having our home the way we want it, we enjoy using the ridiculously posh bathtub with bubble jets every single weekend, we like the trees we’ve planted and the patio and wildlife pond even though they don’t add value. You spend money on things you enjoy like meals and holidays and you don’t get it back, so why can’t you spend money on your home and not get it back?

Well said tortoise

Yep. We got rid of our bath in order to fit a fancy walk in shower with underfloor heating.

I know it'll put off families from buying, but as we have no plans to move any time soon, I don't really care.

Yes we spent more doing our kitchen than we would get back if we sell tomorrow but we aren’t about to sell. We enjoy it every single day so it was worth every penny to me.

Agree with others. As long as you're planning to live there for a while and get lots of enjoyment out of it yourself it's fine.

It never crosses our minds about property value when we do renovations. We do them because they'll enhance our life/living experience as we have no plans to move.

We've spent £15k on a new kitchen that is basically exactly the same as the old, but with a few tweaks and different colour scheme. Same with £5k on a bathroom. Plus we've spent £20k on replacing perfectly "acceptable" conservatory and rear porch. We'd have done none of that if we were thinking of selling up as we know that any increase in value would be minimal - it was all in "good" condition so a buyer wouldn't have been put off or offered much less, and now it's all done, I don't see why a buyer would offer much more.

Over the years, we've also completely re-plastered and re-decorated every room, replaced most of the radiators, replaced the boiler twice, and replaced most of the double glazed windows. We've easily spent the same amount on these renovations as we did to buy the house. But it's all been a matter of personal choice, and none of it has been done with a view to sell or increase the value.

We spent £120k on renovations. We will have added some value but not that much. But we needed the extra space and aren't planning on moving so it doesn't bother me

I think ultimately all renovations, unless badly done, add value versus doing nothing. Much then depends on how long you're staying there.

My view is are you doing it for profit or are you doing it to enjoy it, to enhance your quality of life. If your gong to be there a good while, then doing work only to add profit is fairly miserable.

We are just about to however to get the same size bedrooms / plot/ parking / location in a bugger house wiudkcost is around £200k more upwards .. we are about to spend to spend £80k which will hopefully add £125k to the price we paid but only £50k to the current value so we feel it's worth doing . We will def stay here if it goes to plan and we like it another 4 years and re think then . Mortgage will be paid off then and we may move area when the kids leave college etc .

You spend money on things you enjoy like meals and holidays and you don’t get it back, so why can’t you spend money on your home and not get it back?

Very well put.

We are in the middle of spending silly amounts on work that won’t add as much in value as it’s costing. But we’ll (hopefully) enjoy the house more, rooms we currently don’t use will get used, we’ll have bigger rooms, it will be warmer and lighter and cheaper to run. So we’ll get way more value from the house. And I’m hoping it will mean we don’t feel the need to move house for many many years so that will also save us money.

Can you tell I’m trying to justify the cost

Thanks all - has put it into perspective and lifted my spirits!

I blame the propert shows. We are all at it. Does this add value. The thing is it's relevant if you're going to sell in the next couple of years, but if you're going to sell in ten, it's totally irrelevant,

Do what you need to do to enjoy the house! We have a swimming pool, a thatched pool house and oak framed extensions. I didn’t need any of these and I’ve no idea about adding value, but we like them and they look great. Hopefully when we sell someone else might. In the meantime, I’m happy!

If it makes you happy and improves your life then it is money well spent as long as you can afford it. There are other less pleasing house things you can spend money on that won’t add value but are essential. We had to get our brickwork re-pointed as an example. That was the least enjoyable couple of grand I’ve ever spent. We re-did a patio which probably won’t add value but looks a million times better and has given us pleasure.

A decent patio does add value! Certainly over an identical house with a crappy one!

Yes, we did a kitchen renovation that has probably added no value but made my life much easier because it improved the flow and functionality so much. We also did a bathroom renovation because I wanted a Japanese style tub. It cost a huge amount because there was so much custom carpentry involved, and is probably not to everyone's taste so hasn't increased the value, but I love it so it was worth it to me.

Yes because I live in a home not an investment.

We haven't spent much on ours, but it's things like solar and double glazing and insulation that make the house cheaper to run. I am tempted to re-do the kitchen, I'd like to change the layout because it's a rat run between front and back doors. Today, mostly, both have been open and the dogs/humans have been in and out from front to back of the house, it's inconvenient if i'm cooking, however it all functions nothing falling to bits so cannot justify the cost.
Unlike my friend's neighbours who have recently completely re-worked the layout of a poorly extended older house, they must've spent several hundred thousand and it's not a lot bigger just laid out differently, they've changed it a lot and added dormer windows but they don't make the room much bigger as they're too low, think they over-complicated the design.

We’re at risk of spending more than our house needs but we’ve changed our plans and are seeing this house as our ‘forever’ or certainly very very long term house! We’ve spent money on re-insulating and upgrading the floorboards (they were creaky as hell) and changed the hot water system as well as doing lots of pretty stuff!!

We’ve previously lived in a 10year old house and spent quite a lot upgrading the ensuite/bathroom. I’m a Rightmove addict and I know we were one of a very few on the estate that did that. We didn’t get the money back but it meant our house was sell-able and we were sold within 3 weeks. It was worth spending that money so we could move on quickly and be in a stronger position when we bought this house.