How much would it cost to do up this house?

[Arlington45]

This house www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/71771214 is in a decent location for us and it's spacious (for London) but it's decoratively not to our taste. I realise this is a bit how long is a piece of string... But roughly how much would you think it would cost to completely revamp it?

I'm thinking (but not limited to):

• rip out the enclosed porch and restore
• new garden with lawn, probably replace the shed
• new bathrooms and kitchen (possibly move the kitchen to the back room and knock through into the third reception?)
• Restore floorboards in all the rooms
• Restore period features generally eg picture rail

We don't have mega luxe tastes so we'd be aiming for nicely done up rather than super top spec. What sort of cost do you think we'd be looking at??

100k

It really depends, it's obviously liveable now but clearly a bit dated so it depends how much you want to change and also how much you're prepared to/ able to do yourselves. We moved into a similar property but ours was definitely more dated and the kitchen was about a quarter of the size. We have budgeted about 90k and on track but we did a lot ourselves - all the painting/wall paper stripping/restoring floorboards/light fittings etc. We have paid for a full rewire, plastering in two rooms, some carpentry on very dated staircase, new bathroom and now a kitchen extension and downstairs toilet.

If you're not doing a kitchen extension I'd have a wild guess at around 50k plus the cost of a new kitchen. That's with a basic finish, and plenty of DIY. Big costs will be removal of structural wall, and the movement of the kitchen to a different part of the house. But generally it's liveable now, so I'd probably focus on the floorboards/replaster everywhere/add in nice features/redo bathroom and then in 2-5 years I'd do a big extension on the back squaring it off and put in a new kitchen then. Do up garden as you go.

From what I can see, quite a lot is cosmetic. Obviously kitchens & bathrooms can be expensive but you wouldn’t need to do everything at once. It looks a bit tatty currently. Is it tenanted at the moment? It just doesn’t look very well loved at present.

What’s going on next door? Is that a fridge freezer in the front porch?

What’s going on next door? Is that a fridge freezer in the front porch?

I thought that was the house

The kitchen would be great at the back. You would be able to keep the working kitchen whilst you do it, so you could employ separate tradesmen and over see it yourself, it your handy you can screw cupboards together and get a trade to join them up and cut worktops professionally

Sanding floor boards is also simple if you hire the tools

Bathroom again could be done in stages as you have more than one.

The rest is decoration.

The garden is flat, so lifting the laying turf is inexpensive and requires and sharp knife for the edges. You could do this fairly easily in the spring.

I’d say you could do quite a bit for 50k, and it would look “smart” but if you found anything structural or bigger jobs, like new windows, rewire, new boiler or roof issues that would be extra. I would go for it though as it looks as though the house would pay you back in spades, it could be lovely,

Yeah ditch the porch definitely, it looks like a seaside bnb with that on the front .

I wouldn't buy it just because of the house next door.

I also wouldn't buy it because of the house next door.

The street looks nicer too from Gkeshs suggestion..

What's going on with next doors windows?

@boomshakey

What’s going on next door? Is that a fridge freezer in the front porch?

I thought that was the house

Oh yes. I think you’re right! At first I thought it was the red one because it looks more central in the photos. But the photos of the back “garden” and balcony make it look like the white one with the weird fridge in the porch scenario.

I wouldn’t want to spend the best part of a million on that OP, sorry!

I think 'the house next door' is the house!

80-100k I'd say.

Oh that would be a bottomless pit. That porch is awful and would need a rebuild and restore. The windows are awful. Kitchen, bathrooms, internal re-configuration, floors throughout, work externally. I think you are talking at least £100,000, probably quite a bit more.
Would it be worth £850,000? It looks quite a run down area?

It’s a good price for what it is, in that part of the neighbourhood. I think, assuming nothing came up in the survey, if you wanted to keep the layout you could move in and then spend £50-£60k over the next couple of years making it - cosmetically - a really nice home. But ultimately, I think the layout is weird (because it’s set up as an HMO and therefore to gain maximum rental value) and you’d really want to reconfigure the downstairs at least to turn the whole back of the property into a big kitchen-dining-living space - and that’s where you’d be looking at £100-120k+.

I wouldn’t even think about spending money restoring period features tbh. By the time you’ve knocked through and then gone for added lovely features you’re looking at having spent close to £1million and if you have that kind of money to spend I’d look at buying something already finished just down the road on the Harringay Ladder.

80K
Not a great area though

Thank you everyone. Yes - this house is the one with the horrible porch. So no worries about the house next door! I confirmed it by looking at the detail on the balcony railings.

I think it's probably not one for us. I hadn't even thought about the windows but they are awful! It's such a shame, it has a huge amount of potential but actually we could buy somewhere that doesn't need the work and save ourselves the headache.

We know the area well, thank you. The location of this one is good but not perfect for us so in that regard it's not a huge loss to not go for it.

Comparables in case anyone is interested - on the same road:
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/74082387
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/74378964#/

Unfortunately those are both right next to the church at the end of the road and apparently parking etc is a nightmare every Sunday and any time there's a funeral.

Well the ceiling price for that road looks to be around £800k. So you wouldn't to spend more then that in buying and doing up the 1st house.

Personally I would buy one of the other 2 as if you were to buy the first house you will probably end spending much more then 50k.

Unfortunately those are both right next to the church at the end of the road and apparently parking etc is a nightmare every Sunday and any time there's a funeral.

I would say parking bad where ever you end up in North London. My Family are from Southgate, Enfield and Parmers Green/Winchmore Hill and the houses/roads are just not built for the amount of cars around now.

Unless you put in a low offer of course! It depends how keen they are to sell; maybe it is overpriced at the moment

Looking at those other ones you have put up Op I think it highlights that the first one you have shown is overpriced it will cost more than 50,000 to bring it up to a decent standard, you never know what problems you can also uncover on a house that needs money spent on it.
I personally would have gone for the last one on your list with the lovely family kitchen with the island.
The other one is lovely also though.

Oddly it looks like it has been 'renovated' since being bought in 2015. Unfortunately it looks like a landlord has subdivided rooms, stuck in some ugly bathrooms and then it has become unloved. Looking at comparables something close to £700k is probably fair.