Is my neighbours house really worth 350k more

[Kmj2018]

So we have just purchased a 3 bed detached house on a street where all the houses were built identically in the 60s. It currently only has 1 bathroom so we plan to build an extension on top of a single storey extension to add an en-suite. The lady next door kindly invited me in to look at her extension for ideas. She has a corner plot and has built a double story side extension that’s about 2m wide. We can’t do this as we are not on corner plot. Downstairs look amazing as the lounge and kitchen is huge and she put her extra bathroom downstairs. upstairs she has added a 4th bedroom that’s really narrow and such an awkward space. She had her house valued beginning of the year for 350k more than what we purchased our house for.

Can an extension of this size really add that much value to a property?

I am in a desirable location ,Home Counties, only 25mins train to London, good Catchment, less than 15 mins walk to town and station.

Her location on the street would have a lot to do with it, plus the overall greater square footage of the building.
Or, could have been an estate agents way of luring in a potential seller, by playing on greed? Or plain guesswork by the estate agent on what the market would fetch at that time. 🤷‍♀️

I'd say it depends on your purchase price. A 3 bed for £1.2million to a 4 bed at £1.5 million isn't beyond the bounds of possibility, particularly if she has a good plot, an extra bedroom and a bigger downstairs.

It depends on the total value of the house I suppose. A corner plot is worth more, a fourth bedroom is worth more - on a house worth £300k the difference obviously wouldn't be £350k, but on a house worth £1.2 million it might.

yes , she’s on a bigger plot of land so garden is also bigger. This could be why it’s worth more but I was so shocked when she told me the figure. I would have guessed maybe 150-200k more .

Every street has a ceiling price, although @FindMeInTheSunshine is correct in that it’s all relative.

How does the price compare to other four bed houses in the area?

Position in the street ie corner, outlook, 2nd bathroom and an extra bedroom even if small and akward still counts as an exyera bedroom. If you are planning chuldren, the room becomes a nursery for several years and then has a toddler bed. Many peopke also pay extra to have dedicayed offce at home too. General presentation and upkeep inflence price sinuficantley where i live.
Whats tye approx price range (just vague) ot gives usxan idea whether ots crazy or not

We purchased our house for 550k but we believe this was at a very good price. They wanted a quick sale, we were chain free but ended up having to wait 6 months to complete and within that time prices went up dramatically. We believe ours would be 600k today. Hers is 900k

The corner position, extra bedroom and large open plan downstairs looking fab will all help - but it may be that whilst she had has that valuation the estate agent may have been optimistic and she won't achieve that price. It is only worth what someone will pay for it.

Valuations are guesses, though - I wonder if someone would actually pay the price she had it valued at. Especially since most people looking at a house would glance to see what else had sold nearby and for what price, and it'd be obvious yours was much less and quite similar. FWIW I had the house I rented valued as part of a survey (because we wanted to buy it) and the surveyor's valuation was nearly 100k more than the valuation zoopla had; my landlord is lazy and so marketed it with zoopla's valuation as the asking price. I kept quiet!

Yes, as above. I don't think it even needs to be a valuable house. Sounds as though the square footage / live-ability has become much bigger better, and it may be that the corner plot has development potential which the EA factored into the valuation too.

I would take the valuation with a pinch of salt. Five or six years ago a house which was identical to ours in size but was detached rather than a semi (our) but needed a lot of work went on sale for about 275K more than we paid for ours. It stayed on the market for about 2 years and finally sold for about 150K less than the original asking price.

Have you looked on Zoopla to compare local prices- you may find your has risen too.

Can she potentially get planning permission to build another property in the garden? That would add ££
i was under the impression the foundations required for a 2 storey are not the same as a single, can you just build on top?

BungleandGeorge she probably could build a little office or convert garage to office but couldn’t build another property as it would take away a lot of her garden . We already plan to build on top of our single storey extension to add a bigger master and to add an en-suite but we wouldn’t be able to add another bedroom without creating really awkward room sizes.

Why is a corner plot worth more? I'm looking for a house and not at all keen on corner plots!

Corner plots tend to have more space. A neighbour on one side only if on a terraced road. No ambiguity on who owns what fences (90% of the time anyway). Usually no one has access to cross your land (again terraced roads) and potentially could have access to making a portion of the rear garden into parking - not always possible for mid street properties. More light /privacy. as no neighbour on one side, no party wall agreements needed for one side. Potentially less hassle from neighbours if planning needed for extension and also cheaper if not having to cross other peoples land (making good damage). Maintenance is also normally easier as no neighbour to deal with on one side for access eg if doing roof/side wall maintenance.
I’m sure others will think of other reasons.

Why would you not want a corner plot?

You are right, you cant just build on top. You need a structural engineer to check if the foundations are suitable.

Potentially house surrounded by roads on 2 sides (as opposed to 1 if you don't live on the corner) - more traffic noise? If people can use both roads, more overlooked?

Depending on lay out, you might actually get less land than a standard house?

Again, depending on the road layout, a corner plot is sometimes prevented from extending double storey to the side, they can only extend single storey. Also quite complex rules about the gap you need to leave between extension and pavement (that might be just out LA).

BungleandGeorge I just realise what you meant. So we spoke to the previous owners and they said when the extension was built they built it deep enough so that an extension can be added on too it. I will obviously need to get an structural engineer to double check this . But if this isn’t possible I will see if I could build an extension to the front of the house. We currently have an large front garden which is wasted space as we never use it .

OP you might want to read your LA's planning document. The rule here is that no extensions are allowed to the front if it means the house is closer to the road regardless of the size of the front garden. I am sure that some applications are allowed, but they're the exception rather than the norm.

Africa2go. Thanks for your advice. I’ve never built an extension before so really appreciate all the advice I can get. I will look into a few options. Since my neighbour told me about her valuation it got me thinking how I can maximise our space and and profit from it in the future should we decide to sell.

So currently my options are (subject to planning permission)
1, build on top of existing extension to add a bigger master and en-suite ,

2, bring out the porch by 3m to put en-suite in the hallway
4, build extension to the front of the house
5, turn garage into office

Africa2go I think you might be right about not being able to build front extension as no one on our street has done this so maybe we are not allowed to

Just for info OP - this is the wording from our LA's supplemental planning document For most properties, (in particular semi-detached and terraced) any other form of front extension other than a porch is unlikely to be acceptable, as it may appear an overly prominent feature within the street scene. Small-scale forward extensions may be acceptable dependent on the visibility and prominence within street scene. Large detached properties set well back from the road usually have more scope for front extensions. A minimum of 21m should be retained to the facing windows across the street. It then goes on to put fiurther restrictions on it re losing parking space etc. Hope you find a solution!

Depends on the road, but the corner plot here has had more trouble with burglars as it's easier for opportunists to access over the wall from the street. The other houses are more off-putting as several fences would need scaling. I'd always envied the corner plot for its bigger garden/extension potential till I heard that. They're also closer to any on-street aggro, having pavement on two sides. And this is a nice area so could be worse elsewhere.