How much value does a new kitchen and bathroom add?

[GorgeousLadyofWrestling]

I’m so confused and going round in circles.

We bought our 2 bed flat in south east London the month before lockdown. We got a very good price because it was really run down. No floors, single glazed windows in rotting frames, no shower, and the kitchen floor and toilet seat looked like they’d been set fire to. We did as much DIY as we could before we moved in - new double glazed windows, new carpets and flooring, new boiler, painted and freshened every where up. It’s perfectly lovely everywhere except the kitchen and bathroom.

Kitchen is ok - new lino down and we painted all the cupboards and put that vinyl stuff down over the counter so it’s had a very superficial facelift.

Bathroom is much better than it was - new toilet seat, stripped and painted, and shower added. But it’s very very very old looking and the bath / basin/ toilet are so old, they have water marks that have never, ever gone. It’s the kind of old where it looks unclean even when you’ve bleached it to death.

We had intended a new bathroom and then new kitchen. But DH’s business was hit hard by Covid and is still struggling. We just get by each month. Our flat is part of an identical large estate in private grounds - the flats are identical size. Some have just sold for £160k more than what we have left on our mortgage. I think these numbers are crazy but we have to move on in a few years as we have 3 kids sharing a room and one of them will definitely need his privacy in a few years. So I guess we’re hopeful for a conservative £100k equity in the property.

What is our best option?
A) leave the kitchen and try to re-do the bathroom ourselves? Tiling and everything.
B) Re-mortgage and use some of the equity for DIY in the hope that our flat sells for more because of done up finished kitchen and bathrooms? Is this possible? How does it work?
C) Accept a drop in the price (this is what our vendor did with us essentially, because of the work needed) for the hassle and cost of doing it ourselves?

Even if we did do the rooms up, it would be very basic standard because we won’t be living here long enough to enjoy a lovely finish and it’s not worth ploughing lots into a place we don’t intend to stay in - I think there is a tipping point where you don’t recoup costs so don’t intend high end finishes or anything.

But I’m just wondering how much value these things DO add. Having the windows done was always worth it - the single panes before looked like they’d fall out on a windy day!

There's not a simple answer. Kitchens and bathrooms make properties easier to sell but don't necessarily add value if you have a serviceable and well maintained one already (even if it's a bit dated).

If you can fit a white suite to the bathroom but not go OTT with the more personal choices it might be a good compromise.
I might try and replace the kitchen worktops if it would improve the overall look? It may really lift it for a relatively small investment as covered screams 'quick fix'.

Could you try selling without the improvements a bit earlier than is required and if it has no interest reconsider?

If your old suite is enamel, I found a magic sponge more effective than any bleach. Got mine gleaming despite my initial fears I was removing the surface! Different area but the flat has sold twice since with a new kitchen and bathroom for the same price we sold at so didn't help the value

I would get an estimate from an estate agent before you do anymore work.

I personally would sort out the bathroom but leave the kitchen. Cheap white basic fittings and neutral tiles. The rationale being that having a new bathroom put in when you live there is an arse - invariably takes two weeks with no loo or shower etc. If you say it looks permanently grubby then people will want it done straight away and will start mentally deducting from their offer.

I am always less fussed about a kitchen as long as you can live with it for a bit. You can get takeaways, go out for meals etc and wash up in the bathroom. A pain but a lot less disruptive. Also, if it’s ok to live with for a bit then people are more forgiving on asking price - it’s been priced accordingly. So long as it looks clean, tidy and uncluttered (so therefore looks as if it has enough storage) then it’s fine. If the cover you’ve put on the worktops looks awful then just get a cheap laminate one put in. You can buy a 3m stretch for less than £100.

I suspect its more a case of people trying to deduct the cost of replacing the kitchen / bathroom than adding value. We are SE London too and have totally renovated our place (full on renovation / structural works etc) but we hadn't done the bathroom. It was unloved to start with but it was such a state the agent recommended we do the work because people will be looking to reduce the price to a much larger extent than the work would cost. It has taken a month and my DP did most of it (we paid someone to do the tiles) and it cost several thousand but I think even if we don't make that back, we won't need to consider accepting reductions for someone replacing the bathroom.

OP - we've just sold a 3 bed flat in SE London and it took a year to get an offer and we had to drop the price massively in part because the kitchen, bathroom and windows weren't done.
If you can afford to do them, do them now while you have time to enjoy them before you leave.

We recently sold deceased father in laws house. Bathroom was over 25 years old, that my DH installed, he also installed kitchen at around the same time for his parents. Kitchen was ok, but the bathroom really needed doing and we were all set to spend £4,000 on new power shower, shower unit and new w.c., basin, radiator, extraction fan, tiles on walls and floor. Estate Agent came out and said leave it as it is as it would sell quicker as it was and that there were a few other houses in the same road that were very modern, but were not selling. He was right, the first couple who saw the house bought it for the asking price.

Agree with leaving it as it is

but also check out ebay for local granite off cuts which might upgrade your kitchen for not very much money

^ this.
We wanted to replace the bathroom to sell our flat 5 years ago but the estate agent said not to bother. It was fully functional but tired.
It sold quickly, & has since sold again with the same bathroom in situ - so clearly not bad enough to put anyone off, & still working fine even if it looks a bit shit!

I think it’s a personal thing, and circumstance. We faced this question as buyers last year. We decided to not pay for a house where someone else had done the work. We went with the house that needed a new kitchen and bathroom and was priced accordingly, and we’re doing it ourselves to our own taste. But I am young(ish!), willing & able, no young kids, etc.

Leave it
People will want to redo it to their taste and if it's just been done it can put some people off

Get it valued asap

In your situation I'd put a new plain basic bathroom in, half tile & paint. (I say that because it's easier for people to imagine themselves living there if they can repaint it to a colour of their choice and at some stage do a smaller amount of retiling . A fully tiled bathroom can be 'too much' especially if they aren't to your taste.

buy very basic, unfussy, white suite and Lino.

my fitter sorted it so the loo was swapped over (no time without one) and the bath/shower/floor were all absolute minimum disruption (I think 36 hours max, may have even been less.)

Depending on how your kitchen worktops look, I'd probably replace them with a modern square edge laminate, it's really very cheap.

if they look useable & clean, it'll make a sale easier, if not more profitable. In the meantime you have a cleaner looking, nicer bathroom to use.

but don't over extend yourself.

In our road, a family spent a lot of money on a new kitchen to help it sell. The house did selll... and then the new owners ripped the whole thing out 6 months later and put a brand new kitchen in to their taste

Just a caveat - an estate agent will always say to leave it. They want the property on the market as soon as possible so they get their commission. They don't want you to take 6 months to do some work, then list it. The difference in price you'd get after the work makes very little difference to an estate agent on commission of 1% say.

Look at sold prices, look at flats in the locality and see what you're up against. I would do the work personally, but manage your budget carefully and shop around.

Are there any estate agents can comment on @Africa2go s post? We have always been told that by estate agents and have always suspected it’s not entirely true.

Don’t bother. Do nothing. Make it look clean and as uncluttered as possible. It will sell.

We’ve just sold our house with a bathroom that needed doing 10 years ago. The new people can change it if they want!

We’ve just bought a really lovely house with a shit bathroom!😁 we will change it at some point but we’re not in a rush . It works , I’m going to paint it and change the shower curtain and think about what I want . It certainly didn’t put us off , the kitchen is very nice though .

Contrary to one of the comments on this thread, the EA told us to sort out the bathroom because it effectively ruined the rest of the flat! But we are / will be selling our flat as finished rather than one that needs work.

Generally speaking I think people who are buying a flat don’t want a project in the same way people might sign up for with a house. I also think scuzzy bathrooms are really off putting, especially with the BtL market drying up a bit.

I’d be really tempted to look at the most economical way to make the bathroom less unloved, but leave the kitchen. You won’t be adding value, but if things don’t change flats are going to remain hard to shift, so you don’t want an actively off putting feature.

Just to say that our bathroom was one that we couldn't get to sparkle and I bought some of this musthaveideas.co.uk/pages/nannas-secret-web and it got rid of all the tide marks. I'm not connected to them, was just amazed how clean the bath looked afterwards.

So many great replies here, thank you so much!

re just replacing the suite - I’d love to do that as we would just go super simple. But would I also need to have the tiles re-done because of the sealant/ making it sealed?

I’ve just sold my flat and chose to do up the kitchen first. It was definitely worth it. It was quite bad before (rotting joist, plastering issues etc.) but every single one of the many viewers we had commented on the kitchen and how nice it was (it was the most basic range from howdens).

We had six offers in the first couple of days of viewings, four of which were above asking, which itself was 10% higher than was estimated at christmas.

For us it was 100% the right move. As someone else said, doing work in a flat is not like doing work in a house. So much harder and people don’t tend to see themselves living there long, if at all.

No idea what the general consensus is but from my personal perspective, I wouldn't mind a shit bathroom that needed ripping out as long as it wasn't the only bathroom. If it was the only bathroom I'd want it to be liveable because the hassle of being completely bathroom-less for an extended period is not any fun at all.

Kitchens I'd be much less bothered with as there are other options (eating out/takeaways/microwave meals etc), but you do need to be able to have a shower and a wee.

On that basis, if it was me I'd replace the bathroom suite with a new, cheap one, which shouldn't take long, bit of vinyl on the floor and retile the bath/shower and a splashback and paint the rest.

Another vote for leaving as is. New occupants will install a brand new kitchen and bathroom to their own taste.

It won't make you any extra money, leave it as is. If you must freshen up the paintwork etc but don't replace fittings.

Leave it because new owners will want to put own stamp on it.