How much of a premium does a top spec house attract?

[WavyHazyGravy]

We are interested in buying a property that has been finished to an extremely high standard. Everything done beautifully, with top brands and lots of tech. We are interested in the house because of its location, not because of the finish.

The price is probably about £250k (approx 25%) more than I would expect for a house of that size. Does the finish really add this much of a premium or is it likely to be overpriced?

It’ll attract high flying types that don’t have the time or knowledge to do this stuff themselves and for them the time versus money will be worth the premium. I can speak from experience as somebody who wishes I bought the top spec house when the children were younger.

I thought I’d rather save money by going for a lower mortgage and doing it all ourselves what I underestimated was the amount of income that I lost as a result of arsing about with the house.

I think a lot of sellers who've potentially over-spec'd their property or done something very specifically to their taste when renovating will try and inflate the price to get back some of what they've put into it. Ultimately it's only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and if you're not interested in the finish and features I personally wouldn't pay that sort of premium for it. I'd rather buy a wreck and put my own stamp on it.

Our EA said that it's the location that gives a house it's value, together with the size. People will always want to change things, no matter how "top spec" a house is.
Houses rarely go for very much more than the houses either side of them - unless they are individually built and very different.

It's not actually worth that much, certainly not more than 5-10%. It comes down to whether a buyer has the same taste and thinks it's worth it though. Houses are only worth what someone else is willing to pay

A house is worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it, as they say.

If it's in a popular area, where people are likely to want to buy something they can just move into, it may not be overpriced.

When we bought this house in 2014, it was hard to find something that wasn't either being sold through probate ie needing everything doing to it or having been bought by a developer and done up.

We did find a structurally sound house which we could live in and gradually do up. Houses on the same road which had been done up sold for 20-25% more at the same time.

It depends partly on whether you like the finish, I would think.

Totally depends if a buyer sees the value in the spec, even if one person has spent ££ on something doesn’t mean it necessarily translates into a higher value for the house overall.

The location and overall size is what gives the most value on a property.

Agree with others, rarely worth what the owners think it is. I've seen some very beautiful, expensive houses where they layout that they've spent a lot of money on (moving walls etc) have been very different to what I'd do with a space.

I'd also worry things hadn't been done properly and you'd uncover dodgy electrics etc!

It's relative , and as you haven't given many details , a hard to answer question. For example if a house is worth around £250k but the top spec ramps it up to £500k then obviously not. But if a house is £3 million , then possibly .
Tbh if it floats your boat and you can't walk away from it , then put in an offer that reflects what you are prepared to pay for the extras.

That's really interesting. The house seems to have had a lot of interest, so maybe the spec does appeal to people

We’ve just accepted an offer on our house which is a ‘lived in family house’ ie we did quite a bit of work on it when we moved in 20 years ago but since then have just done repairs/maintenance/the odd bit of decorating. Our buyers missed out on a house in the next road which was completely renovated and looked like a show home - we’d need to do at least £200k worth of work on ours to get it up to the same standard (taking into account price rises of materials etc in the last few months). The offer we’ve accepted wasn’t £200k less than the other house went for so from our experience top spec renovations have only added about 5% to the value. Whether or not that’s worth you paying more depends on a) is it your taste and b) how much are you prepared to pay to not be in a building site ?