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?

Yikes another drip feed but we already have planning permission for an extension. Didn’t mention because I don’t want to bank on that adding value because chances are it won’t if buyers aren’t interested in doing it. The whole reason we never did the kitchen or bathroom was because we planned to extend adding a new bathroom so being able to knock the current kitchen and bathroom into one. But I don’t think I can just sell it assuming people will do what we planned to do originally? I have to sell it for what it is now.

Agree with what @Notwiththeseknees - it's not worth you doing it, but scrub it and clean it, repaint the walls maybe even paint the tiles / cupboards if you think you can do a good job of it. I wouldn't lower your price initially but be prepared that particularly at the moment, it's tough out there and some people will be looking for a bargain and their offers may reflect the work that needs doing

@Nervousvendor yes that will affect the pricing!!!!

If you've got planning permission that's valid for a decent chunk of time for an extension and you have a buyer that has the money to throw at it, that would possibly make up for the kitchen and bathroom.

Is there anything else??

Haha no definitely nothing else

I bought my flat last April, flats in this building don’t come up very often but when I bought mine one had sold three months before for almost £800k.

My flat is a tiny bit smaller (20 square foot), but has a bigger balcony, same number of bedrooms etc, and they’re not small flats, so mine is still generously sized. The kitchen and bathroom had been trashed by the previous tenant, they were usable but needed replacing. My flat was significantly cheaper, as in £150k cheaper.

Replacement of both came to around £45k.

Most kitchens can be spruced up with new tiling, new doors etc. Bathrooms can be cheap to alter, especially if the tiling isn’t too bad.

Wow big difference there Simon. Sounds like you got a bit of a bargain though!

I'd say your chances of getting the asking price for it are good if you get a buyer that wants to extend are excellent. If you have a buyer that doesn't want to extend, or extend within the planning permissions validity, they may offer lower to account for the work if they can't afford to buy and renovate. So really.... just leave the kitchen and bathroom as is and cross your fingers!

Make it immaculately clean.
I don't know what your price bracket is, but when we were looking at our current house, it's a long road of identical 1950s houses. There were a few needing complete renovation around £250k. Ours was freshly done in a style we could live with (important of course) including garden landscaped, knocking kitchen diner through and new bathroom and kitchen, it was £290k. The surveyor was a bit sniffy and said it was only worth £15k extra , I though he clearly had no idea how much a new bathroom and kitchen cost to put in!

So I guess a combination of the market, how fast you want to move and the competition.

You’re right, if the right buyer came along who was happy to do something like an extension (we were, just want a new location now so won’t be) then it might be ok.

I agree it needs to be clean clean clean and as I say every other room will be immaculate because it’s all just getting done.

@Nervousvendor

Wow big difference there Simon. Sounds like you got a bit of a bargain though!

I generally think the higher value property the stupider the buyer is. Yes, this does include me!

I spent a lot, but I could have put in a bathroom from a highstreet retailer for a lot less and it would be just as nice. Lots of people think a new kitchen etc has to be very expensive so they shy away from it.

If it helps, I've not bought a house that had a super amazing kitchen that cost £££ but it was just not my style.

It felt wrong that the first thing I'd do on moving in was rip out this new and expensive kitchen and chuck it in a skip. The estate agent said I wasn't the first person to give this feedback and not make an offer.

There will be buyers who would much rather pay less for a house and put in their own bathroom and kitchen, than live in someone else's.

The house I actually bought had a minging kitchen and bathroom. Both are now lovely and exactly what I want

Anna from having a quick look on Gumtree etc I can see that people are getting rid of what are essentially perfectly nice modern kitchens so totally agree with you!

Agree that if it's a house for first time buyers, they often just don't have the cash spare for renovations after buying or lack the confidence to embark on a new kitchen/bathroom - not everyone of course as some as really up for projects. And depending on area, if an expensive one, a property needing work can attract buyers who wouldn't be able to afford the finished article.

If you personally are someone who can't face getting the work done and will find it stressful to do it, then just don't. Accept you'll get a lower price and be realistic and not greedy and unrealistic about the impact of these rooms. Other people selling would do/get the work done with little stress because they do lots of this kind of thing.

When work needs doing, you do reduce the pool of potential buyers because a chunk of people don't want to put new rooms in. However, if they are usable then lots of people would live with it for a while (as you have)

For your situation, sounds like you should just offload it as it is. Key is to start with lower expectations, esp at the moment. You really do have to accept that people will want to pay less to cover the cost of the new kitchen and bathroom plus the aggravation of getting them done, which is also worth a significant amount.

It's a good point on what your likely buyer will want to do. With cheaper houses nobody is going to put in a Tom Howley kitchen, a clean simple classic kitchen and new bathroom suite (no changes of layout) could avoid them letting the rest of the house down.

all the houses on our street are basically the same design two bed semis built by the same builder 1940s, ours needed a new kitchen but the bathroom was new, we paid £108500 last year one has just sold up the road from us in about the same condition ours was needs a new bathroom and kitchen is still small kitchen and walk in larder so walls down to make it the same size as ours sorting and it has sold for £5000 less than ours so yes bathrooms and kitchens do affect price

Would you believe I’ve just found a leak under the bath! So it looks like we will need to spend some money on the bathroom after all

Having PP in place for an extension will deffo make up for poor kitchen as the new owners will only have to show any amendments they might need to make if they differ from the original and can then proceed. They might ask you for an estimate of how much the extension would cost so it would be a good idea to have one to give them as a ballpark. Then they know what they are in for financially.

We are just changing our bathroom and the guy who runs the showroom said that one of his main customers are those that move house and insist on a new bathroom. They can’t tolerate someone else’s muck!

Don’t waste your money OP.

No. I don't think you should replace them. I'd rather have an old shabby kitchen to replace than a new one I don't like.

Wouldn't put me off as we saw houses with brand new glossy kitchens that I would be ripping out as I hate that. I would offer a bit less and I found that smaller kitchens sometimes cost more as I wanted to add a lot of space saving features.

Best advice is to put photos of them on to save timewasters.

It is easier and probably cheaper just to do the bathroom. It is likely to be less of a "don't like that" as bathroom suites are broadly more similar and thus easier to tolerate, Also they can be updated/improved inexpensively with new tiles, taps etc

Put the photos on. I am more out off by missing photos than bad photos as my imagination makes me think they must be inhabitable.

I are you sure you couldn't get away with painting the kitchen cupboards and recovering the work surface? It seems to have been the theme over lockdown for people to do this and it looks affective.

It depends if it is liveable or needs doing immediately. If liveable I’d leave it, you can make a massive difference just by repainting walls and replacing tiles and flooring. In our last house we left the (white) sanitary wear but retiled (plain white cheap square ones, some from free cycle) and painted. Nice roller blind and a bit of Lino offcut and it was totally different. DH did all the work though.

Honestly I’d prefer that to some of the hideous new kitchens and bathrooms I see where the house is priced at a premium as supposedly it needs no work. As long as you price it correctly to allow for that added work it’s honestly fine.