Loft Conversion Advice Wanted Desperately

[BlesstheChickens]

Hi, I really need advice before my head bursts & gives the dog PTSD, it’s ‘Don’t shock a spaniel week,’ please give advice generously. My first post, here goes.

We have a small 30’s three bed semi in Chislehurst and we want to move but we need to get the most value out of the house as possible, or won’t be able to afford a decent home afterwards. We have ideas aplenty but no sure direction about how to maximise the value.

We’ve read that a loft conversion can boost the value of your home by 20%. Also, a lot of people seem to like the kitchen dining room knocked through especially for younger families. Does anyone have experience of doing these house improvements or knowledge of how they affect the value of the house? Thanks for your time.

You need to look at comparables in your street - Rightmove sold prices, for instance, and see what fully extended houses are selling for v unextended. It’s a bit behind the curve as it takes a while for sold prices to filter through but it will give you an idea. You may find it’s not worth doing due to high construction costs, planning fees, party wall fees etc. plus people sometimes want to do the work themselves. You may be better styling/cleaning/decluttering. If it’s one or other, I’d do kitchen for sale, loft if I were staying (with view to doing kitchen later - build my way out). It’s also very hard living through a build.

The pp gives good advice. I think neither option is going to give you "value". I think a knocked through kitchen diner (we've done it in our 30s house) makes the house more attract and will appeal to families, but I don't think it necessarily adds value to the house. Once you've factored in the cost of the actual building work, plus probably new flooring (so it flows throughout the room), new kitchen, new decorating etc, you're unlikely to come out with much of a profit.

With a loft conversion, although you're adding square footage to the living parts of the house, you might not see a massive increase in value. If its a small house, and you go from 3 beds to 4 beds, people looking for a 4 bed will probably want a bigger downstairs as they'll have a bigger family.

Have you considered a downstairs extension? I think thats probably more likely to create value than anything else but you need to do your research very carefully?

@Africa2go

The pp gives good advice. I think neither option is going to give you "value". I think a knocked through kitchen diner (we've done it in our 30s house) makes the house more attract and will appeal to families, but I don't think it necessarily adds value to the house. Once you've factored in the cost of the actual building work, plus probably new flooring (so it flows throughout the room), new kitchen, new decorating etc, you're unlikely to come out with much of a profit.

With a loft conversion, although you're adding square footage to the living parts of the house, you might not see a massive increase in value. If its a small house, and you go from 3 beds to 4 beds, people looking for a 4 bed will probably want a bigger downstairs as they'll have a bigger family.

Have you considered a downstairs extension? I think thats probably more likely to create value than anything else but you need to do your research very carefully?

Agree with all of this. I have done several extensions in various properties and a loft conversion in one of them.

Well our lift conversion cost us 50k and probably added that much onto the house. Like pp says I would probably try to get as much out of the house as you can without spending much. So declutter, repaint clean etc. It's a lot of hassle to doba big project like a loft conversion and could take a year or more to finish.

Wasn't there a BBC program about people struggling to sell their homes and someone came in and recommended cheap ways to make your house more appealing. Think it was Kirsty and phil and there was a lot of painting cupboards, general clearing and making sure the rooms were well defined with a purpose. Having renovated two houses I would say unless you save a lot of money by doing a large chunk of the work yourself it isn't worth it.

We bought our house a 30s semi 6 years ago for 250k. Remmnovated probably for 120k including loft conversion and now it's worth 430ish but we live in a high growth area and the house was more or less in it's original 1830s state so the work added a lot of value to the basics, insulation, double glazing, decent flooring.

Thank you. I should point out, as my head gently simmers, that we have a small garden which would be absurdly small with an extension, no room for gnomes estates ( I’ve never met a gnome, I believe my garden is beneath them).
We’re having to do up the whole house as it needs it anyway, so still trying to decide between kitchen/dining room and/or loft extension or neither & just general tarting up of squalor.

For context we bought our mid terrace for £600k four years ago. We added a loft extension (£50k investment) and just sold for £700k.

3 bedroom houses on the road I'm buying on go for £650-700k, 4 bedroom houses (including those with loft conversions) go for £750-£850k.

On that basis I'd go for the loft conversion if it's either or, however if the downstairs footprint is already quite small, I personally dislike top heavy houses, so would run the numbers to see if it may be more cost effective to do both jobs at once.

Get a local estate agent in and be wholly honest. Also consider getting basic plans and a selection of quotes for the knock-through and the loft and include them in an info pack so buyers can see options and also get a sense that they’re getting a bargain that THEY can improve.

As a pp said, unless you plan to do a lot of the work yourself, with materials/labour prices as they are right now, you are highly unlikely to make any profit.

I wouldn't do a loft conversion or extension that cost £50k to only add £50k to the value of the house.

Save yourself the time and hassle and just tart it up.

Construction materials are massively expensive at the minute.