South Park Gardens Renovation/Raising Kids

[GrowingRoses]

Dear Mumsnet

My husband and I are planning to move to South Park Gardens in Wimbledon and had a couple questions we’d love your wisdom on.

Should we renovate?
We are considering getting a a house in need of real renovation
eg this one https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/137217665#/?channel=RES_BUY

and turning it into something like this one (which we can’t afford):
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/134528831#/?channel=RES_BUY

I wondered if anyone had renovated something comparable, and what your experience was like?

Do teenagers live in SPG?
We are hoping to buy a place that will last us twenty years, but whenever we are in SPG we notice its all young kids and - based on what houses we are seeing on the market - all the families seem to move out when their kids are around 8-10. Are we missing something about SPG?

First time posting so apologies if I have missed a trick…

I live nearby. There are plenty of teenagers but they are probably all in their bedrooms in their phone! The area has quite a bit to commend it, you have the choice of several primary schools ( you probably know that already, sorry if I’m stating the obvious). When mine were in primary there were a couple of years when a few people shuffled off to Epsom or thereabouts, for bigger houses and good / very good comprehensive state secondaries . For secondary your choice is the local comprehensives which are ok ( Rutlish for boys and Rickards for girls) or private, or put your kids through the preparation for grammars in Sutton, obviously with no guarantee of a place. That’s when it can all get quite weird at the school gates with the cloak and dagger tutoring system.
As for renovating, I can’t see why not, it might be an idea to start a separate thread about this, there are plenty of experienced renovators on mumsnet.

The unrenovated house has original windows which looks much nicer than the pvc ones in modernised.
The modernised has horrid staircase.
Unmodernised has nice bedroom fitted cupboard
Tbh a 'modernised" house can in worse case scenario strip out all charm and character of original , even if you take into account the advantages of an extension such as one shown, which I agree is nice (despite over modern kitchen)
Disclaimer...I live in a house of similar era which is modernised but without stripping out original features. It's possible to spend less than you think if you avoid gutting the place!

What would be your budget for renovation? And timeline? It's incredibly hard to get decent builders on this area at the moment.

wimbledon is a bit overrated these days. mind that lots of people are leaving london. check recent sold prices vs a few years ago.

regarding the second house, it just looks like everyone else's house, it doesn't look massively special or different to anything i've seen before. in fact, it's kinda just what everyone does with their house these days. if you don't do a complete reno, and just pick what would create that look, then it could be a lot cheaper.

I bought and renovated a similar house in a similar area with the last two years.

Two bed to three bed - increased the footprint by 50% via kitchen extension and loft. Added two bathrooms.

I’d say you probably won’t make money on it. The cost of getting from property A to property B is more or less the price difference. So if you don’t have the money now, it’s going to take a long while. The loft could cost £100k.

We couldn’t have lived in it while the work was being done - the house is too small. You may also find to do the loft room you need to lower the ceilings on the first floor etc. Look at the planning permission for others on the street.

And as for moving out.. yes I see similar here. And tbh I get it - teenage kids in a house this size means not much privacy for anyone. Lots of people live in houses this size as families perfectly happily - you probably find those able to afford £1.3m+ houses in Wimbledon are able to choose to ‘upgrade’ or move out at that point however.

The renovated property - I’ll never understand 4 toilets in a 3 bed house!

Renovating those 2 bed Victorian houses by extending the kitchen and adding a loft will easily cost £200k minimum when you include the cost of fixtures and fittings.

Basic dormer loft with ensuite will cost about £60k to plaster finish, when you add flooring, bathroom fittings etc it will be £70k+. Kitchen diner extension will be £80k+ to plaster finish, but then when you include the kitchen fittings and appliances, flooring lighting etc you are looking at £100k minimum. You will then need to make good on all the areas impacted by the build (hallways, garden etc) and it's likely you will end up wanting to do a full refurb. Budget £3k per room for plaster, paint, lighting and flooring. You can see how easily the numbers start to add up.

SPG is lovely, not my favourite area of SW London or SW19, but the primary schools are good which is why there are so many young families.

As mentioned above, the footprint of the houses are quite small, so people do tend to leave for bigger space and better secondarys after 8 years or so. The area itself is not also super interesting. Loads more teens in similar houses around Clapham/Battersea as parents more likely to stay. SPG although nice, is actually a bit of a walk from the northern line and district line stations. And wimbledon town centre is not as good as it used to be, whereas the centres of Clapham/Battersea are improving.

With your budget I'd either consider another part of SW that is more interesting, or look at the Australia's and Minister's areas of Wimbledon which have larger footprint houses.

😂

it’s the bedroom in the attic that makes me think, obviously the house is too small you had to go up there. The price is ridiculous for what you get

@froyoisyuck It's so expensive to move because of stamp duty, people in London instead extend as much as they can.

Example:

• The first property is £850k = £30k stamp duty
• The second property is £1.265 = £67,750 stamp duty

So to buy the modernised version of the same house - you pay a ~£70k uplift for someone else doing the work.

To move into the next level of house, a proper 3-bed with converted attic or a 4/5 bed - you are now looking at £1.8-2m+.

The stamp duty on that property would be £127k - £150k.

So in most cases, the only sensible financial option its spending the £200k on extending what is really a small two-bed terraced house.

This is so helpful everyone, thank you.

@SunshineHello this is exactly our worry - if we are going to need to upgrade anyway in 10 years we figure better to just move further out to get what we need now rather than pay the stamp duty twice. We don’t think we’ll be able to afford much more in a decade anyway.

@TheGander @Femmefatality excellent point on teenagers staying inside, should have thought of that! We have gone for Wimbledon mainly because I really love outdoors/green whereas DH loves speedy commute, and this is only place that seemed to tick both boxes. We really like SPG and access to common though agree high street isn’t the prettiest.

@Nettleskeins @SD25 @froyoisyuck second house isn’t really my style either but closest I could find to full renovation. We also want to try and keep beautiful windows.

@TwigTheWonderKid budget is around 1.1 so we could get an extended/converted house or the smaller one and do it for us… we just want to work out which is better value. In terms of timeline we are quite flexible as no kids and would be renting nearby but of course don’t want to wait an age.