How much do you think kitchen and bathroom can devalue house?

[Nervousvendor]

We’re hoping to put our house on the market this year.

Having had a recce on Rightmove I’ve worked out the average selling price for a house of the same size in our street.

Our house has a couple of advantages over 4 of these houses - it’s end terraced, huge corner plot so big garden and proper drive way. The most expensive of the 5 sold was an end terrace. However! The bathroom and kitchen are diabolical. Not in a ‘change/paint the cabinet doors’ type of way either. There’s no getting away from the fact that both need to be replaced - they’re perfectly functional, just ugly, old and past their time. Every other room will be freshly plastered, painted etc. I really, really don’t want to replace them to just move.

All the other houses that have sold in the last two or so years have had decent enough and modern bathrooms and kitchens.

I know it’s so hard to say but is ours likely to just be worth a kitchen and bathroom replacement cost less than the others? Or will it really detract from the value?

I’m hoping we can get away without picturing them on the listing

Anyone sold a house with similar issues?

People will just factor in how much it will cost to replace them when making an offer. I’d put the photos on. If there’s no photo people will already know there’s a problem with them

For the kind of property you're describing it sounds like a a super long term home. So I would want a long term kitchen and bathroom. So I'd add £20k for the kitchen and £7.5k for the bathroom - size and layout depending

I’d put the photos online. If they’re as bad as you say then there’s absolutely no point in showing anyone round who isn’t willing to do any work. Personally I’d rather buy your house than pay for someone else’s taste and I’m sure I’m not alone! The only thing is that how much it costs to do a kitchen is like how long is a piece of string so it’s difficult to judge. I’d ask the advice of the estate agent- I guarantee you they’ve sold worse!

@Boohooyouho you’re right - I wonder if it was worth just putting them on then people who are put off by it don’t waste their/our time!

@whistleinthewind I’ve never replaced a kitchen or a bathroom but they’re both small in this house so hopefully it wouldn’t be that much.

It really does just depend who is looking to buy. I'd FAR prefer to buy a house like yours than a 'finished my one I'm incredibly fussy so I prefer to make my own choices. I'd rather buy a little cheaper & do it myself. Obviously I'd expect to pay a bit less but not the full price of you doing it. So I think we both win!

It puts me off buying if it's 'finished' because it's hard to justify ripping out something new. And even if I can objectively see it's 'nice' if it's not my taste it's not staying.

House next door to my friend just sold or above asking in a good area. Needs completely gutting and fully redoing Evert square Cm Sold in 2 days.

So true Shy they will definitely have sold worse than mine!

Sad I’m the same as you. So fussy and want everything just so

I have the same issue. Not sure how long I will live here so putting off replacing bathroom and kitchen, however both decent sizes.
When viewing houses I have hardly ever seen a decent kitchen and bathroom to my taste so I figure it may be best to leave it so people can put their own in. However in the meantime I have to put up with them.

In that case then I’ll just try not to worry too much about it. Accept I’m not going to get the same as the other end terrace that sold recently but hopefully only £10-15k less.

I might treat the bathroom to a new shower curtain for photos and viewings

It’s hard going Crimson, I hate my kitchen and bathroom so much but it’s just not worth spending the money. Hopefully it’ll not affect things too much for us.

Much rather buy something that needs sorting. Never see a bathroom or kitchen I like

Difficult one as you could perhaps do the bathroom to a basic passable standard so it looks clean and new and more modern then possibly sell for a few thousand more. Alternatively sell for a few K less and do nothing.

Mine current B&K are small, they have not been Cheap to do. As you still need the basics! 'Bigger' is just a bit more flooring and in the kitchen a few more cabinets, really.

If you are in the first time buyer range I would think they won't want to pay our on things after they move in so would discount your house.

But for me, large garden, not near v busy road, separate lounge dining room would be prioritised over kitchen or bathroom.

I don’t think £20k is a crazy estimate for most kitchens. £25k reduction is possible if both kitchen and bathroom are poor. Don’t think of the rooms as being small as an advantage either, a small dingy kitchen that clearly needs work might be the barrier to a lot of people making any sort of offer at all.

It’s a hard one because it’s not always the case that they straight sway detract from the sale price, as a op said sometimes it’s preferable to have a blank canvas than somebody else’s taste you know you’ll rip out anyway.

Kitchen matters more than bathroom. We moved last year and I HATE our bathroom (brown striped faux-marble cabinets and holographic tigers eye tiles) but we're living with it as I'd rather spend the money on improving other parts of the house.

I similarly disliked the tiles and counter tops in our kitchen (lime green tile over diarrhoea coloured speckled granite) and it was one of the first things we changed because we tend to live in our kitchen.

Previous owners had... interesting... taste!

Our house was £100k less than a neighbouring one as needs lots of work.

We paid another £65k less than the original asking price.

A house is only worth what someone is will to pay for it.

For us it needing work and being large with a slightly odd layout worked in our favour as we will remodel the whole thing over the next few years.

@ArtichokeAardvark that sounds even worse than ours

I’m hoping my potential buyers are more from the first few posters school of thought than the more recent haha. We are talking a sub £100k ex council house here (apologies if that’s a drip feed, I wasn’t sure if that was relevant in my OP) so I’m really not sure it’s £20k kitchen territory or not but I’ve never done one and I do understand it’s something that some people spend a lot on.

Realistically if it’s not worth enough that we would have enough towards the type of house we want we will just need to stay and enjoy the tiny mortgage while longing for more space

We really want to move but it’s not the absolute end of the world if we can’t so I’ll try and keep that in mind.

A big garden doesn't always add value, some people will see it as a liability.

A really good modern kitchen and bathroom will add a lot to the selling appeal and therefore the price (but probably ot as much as it costs is a £100k house) but if they are going to need replacing anyway, it's sometimes better that they "really" need replacing. People don't like the idea of paying for a good kitchen they want to rip out.

@Nervousvendor size doesn't really come in to it. I've put smaller kitchens in and it's been more expensive due to trying to use space saving techniques. In a non-sale our wren kitchen cost about £5,000 for the basic no frills units. We bought most appliances and work tops separately, we bought the flooring. We then had to pay someone to fit it all. Then there's the tiling, the replastering and new light fittings if needed. In total it was probably just shy of 10k. It's a medium size kitchen.

If your house was on for £250,000 and I needed to put new a kitchen and bathroom in I'd offer £15,000 less on that basis if my budget couldn't cover the deposit and the work

@Nervousvendor I'd say that's a bit of a drip and was probably relevant... but it doesn't change the price of kitchens but most likely people would do a cheap B&Q job so I'd still say £5k for a kitchen and then the bathroom another £3k . It's easier to do a bathroom on the cheap

Ahh sorry! I actually put the average price I’d worked out in my OP then I took it out cos I thought it doesn’t matter for my actual question but we’ve got onto numbers so it’s relevant now.

The other thing I’m thinking is trying to pick up a second hand kitchen and getting someone to fit it but even looking at them and trying to work out if it would work with our layout and sizes etc is making my head spin . Plus we’d need to do flooring, tiling etc then there’s the issue people have mentioned where it’s ‘fine’ but not to people’s own tastes anyway.

Replacing a kitchen to sell is risky because everyone has different tastes - I haven't seen a house yet I won't rip out the kitchen so for me it doesn't add value, I would prefer they were functional but need replacement and the house £8k lower

If you have the budge, set aside £1000 for paint & flooring. DIY on a budget on Facebook is excellent for ideas.

FWIW, I used to live in Islington - lovely townhouse but we had left the kitchen till last then we wanted to move to Norfolk. So despite the agent saying update to sell, I just scrubbed it spotless - gleaming in fact.
I had seen too many brand new kitchens in skips to waste money like that. It sold immediately, full asking price (not discounted at all) and a month later the kitchen was in a skip

Don't change it, clean it, paint the walls & everywhere else white, tidy the garden and throw out the clutter.

Is an extension possible? I'd ask the agents whether it was worth leaving things as they are and having some plans drawn up for an extension that could be shown to potential buyers. That might inspire people.

Alternatively at that sort of price it will be prime BTL so they would just rip it all out anyway so probably not worth doing.