WWYD - age old dilemma, move or extend?

[BirdsRoundandRound]

So we are in the fortunate position of having come into some money, so our decision on the above is now brought forwards.

We live SE London and moved from a flat (where we had been for 15 years) 2 years ago, into a 4 bed house in the same locality.

Initially this was intended as a long term move, however i think because we were so wowed by actually having space we overlooked some aspects that are now annoying about our house. We have been gradually doing it up (spent about £40k on new windows, render, built in cupboards) and the plan had been to save for a few years and get a rear extension to add some of the bits that we don't have (namely utility area, downstairs loo and direct garden access). However I don't think the cost of the extension would be added to the value of the house, as we are pretty much at ceiling height for our road and wouldn't be adding on an extra bedroom (as loft already done).

So upsides to extending:
Would gain bigger kitchen dining area
Direct access to garden
Downstairs loo
Utility
Could extend and still have money in the bank

Downsides:
The extension is a bit awkward, we have a drop to the garden so it would be split level (I've done some mock ups and we could make a feature of this, but means more complicated architect and planning permission process than bog standard extension)
We would be unlikely to add the value onto our house in the near term (I don't know exact extension costs but would estimate £75-100k)
The garden length would be reduced to about 8.5m (not unheard of round here as London, but still on the small side)
We are terraced so no side access, which is more of an issue now we have a dog.

It seems like moving would be a better option to try and get what we want, however there is so little on the market at the moment in the price range that it's hard to tell whether we could get all we wanted by a move or not, and when you factor in stamp duty etc the cost of moving is huge, so would leave us with very little savings left.

One option is to sit tight for a few years and see, however our plans will affect the work we are doing on the house and how much we spend as it would be for sale, rather than for us (e.g spend loads on the tiled path I want in the front garden, vs make it look tidy with brick).

WWYD?

£75-100k is a lot, isn't it? Yikes. It doesn't feel like you'd be getting a lot for the money. The only thing I'd class as a necessity is a downstairs loo.

What do you mean about "direct access to the garden"? How do you access it at the moment?

We have raised decking and have to go onto that, then down some steps. We have the original back door/patio doors which go onto the decking (from the galley kitchen and dining room which have been knocked through).

The idea with the extension would be to step it down, then having sliding doors to open up the whole back onto the garden (I really like that ability to open everything up in the summer).

The kitchen/diner is quite small at the moment so the dining table feels quite crammed in, and the layout is really awkward. We also have a lean to pantry which has the washing machine in, but the foundations are very shallow so it's falling away from the house, so will need replacing at some point (this seems to be an issue with all the houses but obviously much easier for those without the drop!)

Oh I see. That sounds like a pain! I can see why you'd rather rejig it so it opens up open the garden.

I'm afraid I'm absolutely no help. 😂

We have just finished extending. Cost us about £100K once you factored in redoing the garden (got trashed during build) and some unexpected underpinning. Didn't include the new kitchen.

You don't say how much the house is - £100K on and £800K house to get a bit more is possibly OK - not so OK on a 500K house.

I'd say allow for unexpected, you need a contingency - so for drains, underpinning, re doing the garden.

So will it actually be £100K?

In your shoes, unless you love the house and the area - I'd move.

Oh wow - £100k without the kitchen? Was it a particularly big extension? I may have to rethink my sums on this.

This is a good point, we've extended before and there is always something unexpected that comes up.

We haven't had the house valued, but going by similar properties on the market at the moment (most are selling quickly) I reckon it would go for about £850k. But I don't think it would be worth £950k+ after the work.

Problem is we do love the area, so wouldn't be moving far which means getting what we want is quite pricey.

There is a cheaper extension option where we knock down the lean to and replace with a slightly larger utility extension (so no structural work) and put a loo under the stairs. But doesn't solve the small kitchen/diner and the drop to the garden issue (or the lack of side access).

It is hard isn't it. We've taken ours above the ceiling price for the street, but, the location really suits us, we like the house, we don't intend to move for a while (maybe ever as we've got another eyewatering bill coming up for more work on the house).

It's also a very sellable house that we live in. So if we did sell it should sell easily - even if though we won't make back what we've spend on it.

The work we've done has very much been done to make it the house we want to live in and to work for us - so a downstairs loo, a utility, a decent sized kitchen, direct access to the garden.

Also 2 new bathrooms and decent hot water tank and new pipework upstairs.