Would you buy a house that needs significant work doing to it, at the moment?

[IndigoTinsel]

Basically as the title says..

Would you or not? I'm terrified about costs and builder availability. DH is super chilled about it all and I think because I read the news and mumsnet! I have a better understanding of what many people have faced with building work in the last 2 years whereas he is still thinking it is 2014 when we did up our last house quite easily and within our very modest budget. However this next project is another level....

Thinking 2 storey side extension, loft conversion and rear extension, changing staircase as current one couldnt be kept as is and moving from oil to a heat pump. Then obviously new kitchen, bathrooms and all other interior things though prepared for that to come later if we can just get in the property initially.

We wouldn't have to live in it but we would be living at a significant distance from the property albeit with the ability to be there when needed with a fair amount of flexibility and somewhere to stay nearby too and/or trusted family to go over if we could not.

We would have an initial budget of 110 to 150k and saving about 2k a month to keep on top of things going forward.

Any comments or advice is much appreciated, thanks!

That budget sounds very light for the amount of work you describe, unless you are doing a significant part of it yourselves (doesn't sound like it...). It may depend what part of the country you're in too.

Have you had any prices? If I had to guess I'd probably double your budget. But I'm not an expert.

I last got a quote for an extension some years before covid, probably about 2018. Wanted a 5ftx3ft single extension doing and quote was 9k. I agree I think you’d need to at least double your fund…..have you had any quotes? And be aware as materials, etc keep rising the costs will probably keep going up.

Ive just spent £150k on a ground floor kitchen/diner & new utility extension (4m x 6m), double storey extension for one bedroom & office conversion above kitchen extension and some minor alterations internally (doors moving etc). This did include new kitchen, decoration, all new white goods etc. Lots of materials went up during our build which we had to pay the increase for (steels, bricks, tiles etc ). We're just pleased it's finished but I really wouldn't recommend starting any work right now - severe lack of available trades & materials increasing rapidly. I think your husband needs to do some research quickly if he thinks it will be completed quickly or at a reasonable price!

Thank you, that is helpful.

Our last home, we discussed extending in 2020 and quotes for loft were about 30k and single storey rear was about 25k.. so we hadn't planned for double that, but maybe we need to! Maybe we wouldn't do the loft on this occasion though as the side extension would be sufficient.

No quotes yet because we have only just put an offer in and it's not yet been accepted/rejected, but we are trying to work out what may or may not be achievable. If offer did get accepted then next steps would be getting at least one quote for the bulk of the proposed works, ideally before we progressed any further and probably in tandem with the survey etc. We don't want to mess the vendors around and get too far along with purchasing something we can't afford to do though so wouldn't want to drag anything out for too long.

We have probably better than average DIY skills but they do not extend to most of the main building work that I've mentioned above. We would be more able to save money by doing things ourselves once the 'build' part was largely done.

Thanks @chocolateoranges33 that is very helpful as it is quite recent and sounds similar to what we would want to do. I have said to him exactly what you said about researching and getting up to date with current issues in having work done but it is not phasing him at all. I will have to try harder. I'm not against doing the work and it presents us the opportunity to have a much better home than buying something more expensive to start with but I do want to go into it with our eyes open and I'm not sure that's the case yet!

Whereabouts in the country are you? Our loft extension is costing £65k alone and we were quoted same again if not more for a small rear extension. I think 110k-150k isn't going to be enough unless you drop one of the extensions.

There is no way 110k will cover that. The cost of building has rocketed. I would also really consider how much you can tolerate living in a building site. It always takes longer than you think.

Some items gone up but not all....you need to check....some labour also gone up but again not all....your budget looks too small for your plans tho....i do book keeping for a tiler and carpenter....they havent put up prices but materials have gone up....some not all.....they are in demand and have huge waiting lists as are good workers....thats the other thing...finding good people now...very hard.

Work on that sort of scale will cost you nearer £250k, £150k will be nowhere near enough.

You need to double your budget. Just lost a long and detailed post but PM me feel details if you want! We are SE and building an extension has more or less doubled since 2018, our quotes are coming in at £3k -£4K per square metre plus VAT, kitchen, flooring, decorating, etc on top. That’s a simple extension with no steels.

I would say at least 300k for the build alone and then whatever you want on a kitchen, bathroom etc.
To give an example a friend got a kitchen two years and the same company quoted double the price for the same number of cabinets!
The steel increased 25% in 3 months..
Costs have spiralled basically.

You won’t get that extension work done for £150k.
likely need another £80k ish at least on top

@IndigoTinsel i would not.

Read my post I posted on here yesterday - www.mumsnet.com/talk/property/4567861-renovation-costs-spiralling-out-of-control

My costs have doubled in 5 months, you’re looking more at least £300k or maybe £250k if you did everything after first fit yourself.

I would say that you're probably quite a way off the required budget. We've just been quoted £135k for a 7.6m x 4.5m rear extension and a 3.5m x3.5m side extension. That's without flooring, plumbing, finishing etc. So basically just a waterproof shell, foundations and plaster.....

Whereabouts in the country are you? We're in the south west. Obvs south east is even more expensive.

We are just in the process of buying a fixer-upper - we offered in February and it's a long term house so we're just biting the bullet and continuing (but are considering different ways to achieve it....).

Thinking 2 storey side extension, loft conversion and rear extension, changing staircase as current one couldn't be kept as is and moving from oil to a heat pump.
That's a lot of work. Why are you buying a house that doesn't suit your needs. Why not spend the money on getting the 'correct' property in the first place?

Does all the work need to be done immediately? Could you move into the house as it is and then gradually do the work (even if that works out more expensive in the long run)?

To be honest I'd be contacting a few local builders, explain the situation and see what they say. Not a formal quote, but just a ballpark figure for an extension of X size, etc. and what would the current timescale roughly be on something like that.

I think you're right, though, building costs have spiralled - both materials and labour. It's also got really difficult to get the work done - builders seem to be really busy (around here anyway). I'd be looking for something that doesn't need significant building work done.

You need some ballpark quotes. Before buying. Otherwise you’re buying a house with no real idea of what the final cost of the house maybe. Could be you’d be better off increasing your house budget by x and getting a different house depending on what the quotes are.

Obviously much depends on where you are but friends of ours have just done the exact same work in East London and their final bill is coming in at 250k+. It's been so slow going too, as the builder's labourers keep getting poached for more money, so it's pushing the labour cost up. I wouldn't do it in this economic climate.

No I wouldn’t. You are being realistic your dh isn’t!

I would buy a house which fits my needs with minor tinkering around. You’re basically rebuilding your house. Why not just use your budget to buy a better house?

Entirely depends how recession proof your money and lifestyle is. Builder, trades demand & materials cost are for sure to drop significantly. If you are the person who still has the funds for a big project when that happens then ker-ching

It sounds low but her quotes

I wouldn’t atm but building etc seems subject to rising costs

Get..

Could you live in the house in the current state it is in?

On the whole, in normal times, I'd say that unless you are doing a lot yourself, it would always be cheaper to buy house ready done than do one up (with the exception of purely superficial cosmetic things like painting and decorating which I never think are worth paying for unless they are exctly to your taste). But in times like this, with both crazy house prices and insane materials/labour costs, it's relly anyone's guess, and very much depends on where in the UK you are. The upside is if you do the work yourself or have it done, you get it done the way you like it, and you can do the jobs or have them done properly from the bottom up. And though it takes time, you aren't under pressure of time, because if you can't live with mess for extended periods of time, you ought not to be getting into the doer-upper market, as things always take longer than you first estimate as well as costing more.