Best ways of adding value to house for resale

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Is it a matter of more floor space?

More bedrooms where possible?

New kitchen and kitchen extension?

How does one calculate the added value before starting the work? A quantity surveyor?

I would ask a good local agent to value your house then say if were to do works to boost its value, what would you suggest.

They will usually say oh just sell now as they'll want it on their books, but persist.

You can just look at sold prices on Rightmove as well as current ‘under offer’ listings. For relatively standard houses it’ll be easy to gauge the difference in price between a 3 bed vs an extended 4 bed with the loft converted. A bit trickier for less standard houses.

In terms of what adds value and sells well, it depends on the area and target market. Eg families often want extended kitchen/family rooms, separate utility, ensuite to master, off street parking etc.

Watch for ceiling price for your street/area. Very difficult to get well above this, especially if ex council.

Don't over extend for your plot - people still want a suitable garden for the age/style of house and its intended occupants.

If you live in a difficult area for car parking, creating a parking space is relatively low cost and can make a massive difference.

I don't think thinks like kitchens and bathrooms ever "justify" the cost.

Making your house the biggest/best in the street is really a good thing, but if you don't already have them adding en suite if you can do it without making bedrooms too small, moving a downstairs bathroom upstairs, adding downstairs loo or a bedroom in keeping with the area will add value but maybe not more than they cost to do, depending on house prices in your area.

Sigh....rarely a good thing.

Boosting value for sale is very different to adding value in the longer term when you're living in a house. You will generally only get back a percentage of what you have paid for larger improvements such as kitchens etc.

So things like kerb appeal, neutral paint colours, nice tidy garden on a solid very well maintained property, are often more important than putting in an amazing bathroom that you love (but which might not be to a buyers taste).

Good quality bathrooms are important. We invested over 10k to update one of our bathrooms before going on the market. It definitely helped us to achieve a better price and to present a more attractive house.

We had an estate agent look at our plans and give us a valuation for the house "before" and "after". When we sold it actually beat his estimate.

Improvements need to be in scale to the value of the house and area and you are unlikely to beat the "ceiling" price for the area/road. A local surveyor might give you an opinion on that. For instance adding too many bedrooms without enough living or storage space, or extending so much there's no garden left. A house should be balanced and have good layout and circulation.

If you are just looking to increase value like a property investor would, it would probably be a case of refurbish with inexpensive/mid range but well installed fittings, tidy inside and out, bring wiring and heating up to date, but don't go for major extensions or quirky features. Just make the house the best possible version of itself. If there are simple improvements that the neighbours have done like loft conversions, knocking a small kitchen through or moving a downstairs bathroom, look at that.

As a buyer currently looking, alot of "investments" actively put me off including:
Newly done bathrooms and kitchens unless they exactly match my own taste
Conservatories
"Cabins" and garden rooms
Hard to reverse garden work like astroturf or 3bed house with parking for 4cars and no front garden
Random extensions
Ensuites unless the room is really big

You can tell when someone's trying to claw back the money they've invested! Honestly the only thing that really seems to definately add value are well done attic conversions, energy improvements and parking (if in proportion to size ofhouse).

I would ask an estate agent to value your home now to see if you are already at the ceiling price to see if any improvements are worth it. We've found out that most people want an open plan kitchen/diner which we had in our previous home but not here. So that might be worth it. It's also worth bearing in mind that prices will probably drop so unless you are doing the improvements for you it may not be worth it in the short term

I’m with GreenBeeSW the majority of new kitchens and bathrooms put me off. Especially if they’re grey and shiny. If you’re thinking of doing anything to those rooms, go for something middle of the road rather than flashy.

We recently viewed 2 houses a few doors apart. As it turned out, we went with a 3rd option. However they were identical newish houses - one had a white shaker kitchen, neutral carpets and paint. The other had a high gloss kitchen, faux marble floor, metallic tiny tiles in the bathroom, lots of grey and mirror furniture..... the first sold straightaway, the flashy one took weeks longer to sell.

Honestly a fresh lick of neutral paint and kerb appeal (decent front garden) will get you more offers

I always think work that's been done specifically to sell a place has probably been done on the cheap.

I would say that you don’t want anything that obviously “needs fixing” eg damp patches, cracks, floor lifting, funny smells. Anything really awkward layout wise is worth changing (eg only bathroom downstairs or one bedroom accessed through another) but often these can’t be fixed or they would have been!

In terms of more major work I would say it doesn’t often repay the cost. New kitchen/bathroom there is just as much chance the viewers would have preferred to do it themselves.

Estate agent would be the best person to tell you what adds value in your particular area for your particular house.