Are extensions still feasible?

[Beakyok]

We bought our house coming up to 3 years ago, always with the aim to extend it - wrong house, right location etc. We kept a sizeable chunk of money back to help fund the extension and from conversations with several builders at the time, knew we were in budget. However, life struck…Covid, surprise baby, work issues etc and so building plans didn’t happen. We’ve finally managed to get plans drawn up and yes, you’ve guessed it, the quotes have not just doubled, but more than doubled! We expected an increase but not this jump.

So my question is what are people doing? Sucking up the costs in the hope that they won’t have to ever move? Not worrying about going beyond the ceiling price of a house? Deciding it’s cheaper to move than to build? Or just waiting and hoping things calm down next year? It seems such a volatile time to make such an important financial decision.

@Soffit surely it depends on availability and area though, an extension might be worth it depending on the jump to the next level of house. It would cost me over 100k in stamp duty to move, plus an extra 300k to get an extra bedroom and my plot might not be as good, I would have to potentially replace kitchens and bathrooms once in the new house. For me 180k to extend is a no brainer.

That’s not how it works. Housing supply is constrained. And Houses are to live in for most people. As long as people are living in the newly done up houses for 5-10, they will make their money back, and then some. The only way that would change is if there was magic supply of a couple million houses being produced. We can all agree that isn’t happening.

In our area (SE) people aren't sucking it up. We've gone from 16-20 planning applications per year for our neighbourhood to zero.
No idea how the builders are coping.

But you sound like you live in a similar value property to mine so it makes a bit more sense in proportionate terms. I was thinking of some of the other posters upthread.

In any case, I have the savings to pay stupid prices for work (that was quoted at half the price a year ago when not all material costs have doubled) but at this point, I'm basically priced out of the game for being too tight. A concrete box attached to my house for the price of a second home like a waterfront villa in Turkey or a lovely eco holiday home outside Stockholm or Montreal. Nah, just nah. There will come a tipping point as far as I am concerned. It is no longer worth paying that much to improve a home in the UK of 2022.

I agree there will be a tipping point and it will vary on area and how much you can get both in terms of housing and extensions. Sadly the extra bedrooms are needed as I’d much rather have a holiday home and less upheaval!

@sst1234
The actual kitchen is separate.

The quote is £70,000 for extensions to second fix and our allowance for plastering/ fitting kitchen once bought. Extension is very small. Have only paid deposit for first project at the moment so will be able to see how it goes.

It's such a massive jump from 3 to 4 beds at least in this area. It works out cheaper to add a dormer than upgrade to a 4 bed. Especially considering there are very few older houses even for sale. This that are are going for silly money(imo) despite also needing lots of work.

We worked out we'd make back what we spend even if we move in a few years ( no plans to though). Doing similar to what others have done locally.

I'm not planning on moving for a long time and I get that I'll almost certainly recoup all costs. I just can't justify paying possibly more than double what I'd have paid in 2019. Prices may not come down, but they certainly can't keep rising as rapidly as they have been... it just isn't sustainable. I'll take my chances and reassess in a year or so. I feel for the people that really do need to extend though and dont have the luxury of holding off.

We are in a similar position. Bought our house in 2018 and kept some money back to do an extension. Lived in it for a while then in late 2019 got some quotes for a very small extension on back of kitchen. Literally big enough to put dining table in. Came out at about £30k plus at the time plus the kitchen costs. Basic spec no bi folds etc and we thought that was expensive given the usual amounts you see per square metre quotes. Nothing special about the extension. Very straight forward no planning needed etc.
There is no way I can consider paying more than double this amount now. It just isn't worth it. We wouldn't have enough money to fund it now so would need to borrow more on the mortgage. Our mortgage isn't huge and the value has gone up massively in the last 4 years just because of house prices but I can't pay £70k ish plus kitchen for a basic extension to fit a table in
I'll just live with it. We do need a new kitchen definitely so may well end up doing that and rejigging the space as we could do a few things to make it flow better without extending.
I do seem to be in the minority amongst friends and family though. Everyone seems to have a huge kitchen diner with a sofa in there too

Thing is builders pull figures out of the air unless there are actual plans they can work to. They can give you a very rough guide (like £2000/per sqm for a new shell). But factor in your spec for finishes and that goes way up. Plus materials have actually doubled in a lot of cases, and you are three years of labour costs also rising. I'm not at all surprised it's more than doubled.

I’m in SW London. Property prices are crazy. However, they’ve been crazy before, stalled and then went crazy again. It’s been like that for decades. There is so very little on the market, and as others have said, the jump in prices from a 3 to 4 (or 4 to 5) bedroom is often insanely high. On top of that, housing stock is really poor generally, so you need to factor in enormous costs for bringing bigger properties up to date.

See this for example: www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/122641889#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY

2.5 million (once you factor in stamp duty) for a 150 sqm complete wreck that will cost at least 200,000 to do up, let alone extend? I’d rather extend my own home.

That house is a dream. But you're right, it would take some money to get it back in shape. I hope whoever buys it manages to hang onto some of the wonderful character in it.

@Yellownotblue I know London prices are potty but they still astound me every time. Thats a very similar albeit slightly smaller version of our house when we bought it, in similar condition. Ours also has a lot more land, parking and garaging and views over countryside. We paid just under £1.75m less than that because we are in the North. It's cost us 180k to completely modernise the main house and make it energy efficient (insulation, pv, smart heating etc) and build a stand alone annex - which also cost less because we're in the North.

@Whereverilaymycat , are we looking at the same house 😁? I don’t see much character, unless you count asbestos ceilings and derelict fireplaces. Coving and picture rails cost nothing. Insulating a EPC1 house is a heck of a job.

Ha ha maybe I'm being overly romantic! I do love seeing picture rails and cosy little rooms. I appreciate most people would dramatically alter it. There's a very similar house on near me. Hasn't been touched since I don't know when. I would need a huge budget to buy it and then a truckload more to get it ship shape, so it's an impossible dream. And yet I'm stalking it on Rightmove ever my day!

This was the case when stamp duty jumped from 1% to 3% at 250k. That meant that SD jumped from 2.5k to 7.5k which is why the market was always skewed/confused in the 250k -300k mark. My first house was one of these where no one would pay over 250k for but once the SD rules were changed, everything changed and we sold it just over a year ago for over 350k.

There is still a ceiling price for the road as they are ex-council houses but they are still very desirable homes with large rooms, decent size plots and a massive shortage of houses with the same amount of space for 400k or less. A done up/extended house on the same road sold recently for 425k.

I think it depends on the property and how long you intend to live there too. We will be in our house for at least the next 20 years (fingers crossed). So the extension we are building will be definitely worth it for us.

We're currently at the planning permission stage for what will be probably be a £250k extension. Our architect has said prices rarely go backwards so I really wouldn't recommend waiting even longer.

we looked at one house which had a poor layout and needed modernising and it was cheaper to knock it down and build a larger
timber framed house

Faced with this OP we moved. We moved about 1mile away to the ‘same house’ that had had all the work we were planning to do already done. It was still an expense but (upon exchange) we had an exact £amount that we knew had to borrow/pay off not subject to fluctuations in material costs etc - we did get a 5yr mortgage fix.
Not to mention eliminating the stress of a build. The move was stressful though, I do question whether it was any less than building would have been…but it’s over now.

In addition, the timescales we were looking at for builder availability we would have only just started building now. But as it stands having moved we’ve been in and settled for 9months now, enjoying the additional space we wanted.
The quotes we got a year ago for building would also no doubt have gone up.

for our particular circumstances it was definitely the right choice, but it does sound like we were lucky to have found our ‘same but with the work done’ house to buy, that we could afford. I’m not sure now, 9 months on, that would still be the case.

It's telling that two of the photos are of the park across the road. FFS

A house near me has extended up over the garage, out at the back & out at one side. It must have cost an eye-watering amount. Tbh it looks odd but I understand why they did it. A house in the village had a ridiculous amount of offers & went for 30% over the asking price. Moving within the area is almost impossible

@LennyFitz @ThisMustBeMyDream sorry I just saw this! Yes by 6m I meant the length of the extension, the area of the extension is 6x7m so a decent area and we're also ripping out the existing downstairs area completely including two walls so it's quite a bit of work. I actually feel "lucky" we've found someone who will do all the building work for 100k! Haha

That doesn't include the units and fixtures and fittings such as glazing, flooring, kitchen and utility, bathroom which we've budget an extra 50k for.

Crazy still though.

We moved last year and decided extension wasn’t viable because there is too much potential for delays due to material shortages. Delays also mean spiralling costs because prices quoted are only valid for a short period and the knock on can become exponential.

Even something as simple as getting a skip was a nightmare last year. I can’t imagine what planning and building control were like.

So instead we purchased a Reno of the right size and near enough layout (we only need one wall out / one steel for our second phase), and all other works are self certified trades for building control.

Nearly finished phase 1 now in 6 months and on budget 😊 full back to brick of main house, new plumbing, heating, electrics, plaster, window restorations to double glaze original sashes. Currently second fix electrics and decorating. Bathroom delayed due to tiles missing in transit and ridiculous lead time for vanity (4 months!). But Floor protectors in some rooms coming up and the end is in sight 🙏