Value lost removing bedroom for bathroom?

[RedMozzieYellowMozzie]

A family member lives in a (newly renovated and extended) 4 bed bungalow. It has an ensuite shower to a guest bedroom and a small family bathroom. If we bought it we would be thinking of turning one of the guest bedrooms into a bigger bathroom and the current bathroom into a utility room. There is no further scope to extend to readd a bedroom. How much would it likely knock off the value of the house to do that? It's located in a very odd area where all the houses are different so it's not easy to compare like with like. It's a retirement area rather than somewhere families with young children would be buying, if that makes a difference.

Anyone have any thoughts please? Getting an estate agent round right now isn't possible hence why I'm asking here

I'd ask some local estate agents, but if you find out it would knock off lots of value you could always change back when you come to re-sell if planning to stay a while/recoup the money back over time etc x depends how perfect the rest of the house is I guess! X

It would knock about £100K off in my street, going by recent valuations and sales. If it was a long term forever home purchase that's fine, but I wouldn't do it for an investment.

@saleorbouy

A floor plan of your ideas would be great so that we can visualise the spaces and make more constructive suggestions. Is there space in the roof for a room, does the roof pitch allow for this?

No according to the owners they looked at extending into the roof but it wasn't possible because of the pitch so they added an extension on the back instead

Thanks for all your opinions lots to consider but I think ultimately its too hard to tell ourselves and we do need a local estate agent like some of you have said. The resale market is definitely retirees there are no decent schools anywhere nearby so not attractive to families.

We will have to look at arranging with the owners to find an estate agent or someone

I would look honestly at the size of the rooms and whether the things you would put in the utility could be accommodated in the kitchen or anywhere else. Even putting the tumble dryer in an outbuilding/garage if the house has one. I wouldn't have thought that removing a bedroom to put in a utility room if it's not strictly necessary would be a good idea. Especially if it's all recently refurbished - are you going to be removing stuff that's new? Because then you're spending money twice essentially, if you're planning to pay market value to the current owners because the current market value will reflect a newly refurbished house but it sounds like you want to essentially undo that work and remove a bedroom - it's hard to see how you won't lose money overall.

Bungalows are in demand, certainly in the area I live. Most are 2 bed, some 3 bed but the 4 beds are either badly laid out and cheaper for that reason or silly expensive

It doesn't sound like something that couldn't be reversed tbh

Do it, enjoy it and I'm sure something that's in great condition will always sell for good money

I think it depends a lot on who is likely to be interested in the property. If it is retirees as you say, they may prefer more rooms like an en-suite that they would actually use instead of empty bedrooms. But a family area not so much.

In London, many townhouses have the back bedroom on the first floor turned into an en-suite. Often these are attractive to young families with few children or professional couples that might have no children and want a decadent amount of space.

There's £100k difference in price between 3 and 4 bedroom houses in my area, so losing one would make a substantial difference!

Bungalows are like gold dust in my area, at 55 With no D.C. at home anymore I would prefer a three bed bungalow with a utility than a four bedroom one. We’ve already got two spare bedrooms in our house now, with a third converted into an office, I don’t need more bedrooms but a Utility/boot room would be great.

@RedMozzieYellowMozzie

Yep but this wouldn't be a forever home for us - if we are going to wipe 100k off the value by doing it then it's a terrible investment and not the right house for us.

Thanks for your input though

So get what you want done to make you comfortable but convert back when you want to sell ??

How much do you need a utility room? Is there another small space you could make do with instead?

We have smallish bungalow and we have a clever "cupboard" which conceals a big laundry sink, a small cupboard for cleaning products, and a washing machine and dryer (stacked one on top of the other). The dryer is a condenser dryer so is fine being in a cupboard as it doesn't need to vent to the outside. It takes up hardly any space at all. So if you have no space for utilities then could something like that work?

Something else to think about us that there may be far more people out in the market looking for a third bedroom than a court and having a bigger bathroom plus utility room may be more attractive than having a tiny fourth bedroom.

I suggest you ask an agency for a valuation, even the same you bought it for, and ask them how much do they think it could be marketed for if you do the changes.