Loft conversion no longer sensible?

[museumum]

We’ve just had first costings back for a loft conversion to our 3 bed semi to add a fourth bedroom with en suite. Looks like the cost including vat and fees and basic decoration will be around 40% of the current value of the house. There’s no way that would be sensible would it? Our spec is pretty ordinary, no structural complications…. It’s just current labour and materials costs. Has anyone else found similar?

Is it your forever home? What would you get if you bought a new house worth that money?

It is supposed to be a “forever” home but that doesn’t mean we want to be trapped in negative equity with no chance to ever break even.
Are there any rough rules of thumb about how much value another bedroom could ever add? I wouldn’t have thought it was anywhere near the cost were talking here?

40% is a lot but it depends whether you can afford it, whether there's a risk you'd need to sell rather than live there say 20 years and how much enjoyment you'll get from it.

I'm doing a renovation that will be at least 50% of the purchase price and I'm fairly sure we won't "make" that back if we sell when it's complete. But we can afford it and we won't leave for 20 years. (hopefully!).

To answer your first question, no it's not sensible. But 'sensible' isn't the whole equation.

How much would it cost to move to one already done?

It so depends on the house prices where you are. A loft extension varies a bit in price around the country (particularly London) but say it's £80k that's a bit of a different investment against a £200k property or an £800k property. If it's 40% of your house cost that doesn't feel like something you'll get back, so, if you've got the finances to not worry and you'll stay in the house for a good while then it's worth it to you. If you both lost jobs, had to sell and ended up with no equity because of a high mortgage then probably not worth the risk.

loft conversion is pointless with this costs, it is cheaper to move out to a bigger place, same for extensions(subject to locations).
cost of materials and labour needs to come down, once demand slow down.

That does sound horrendous.
Do you need the extra space?
How much would it cost to move somewhere with the extra space you need, and is that more or less than doing the loft extension?
Any idea what the value of the house would be including loft extension?

Where would you store stuff,? Loft conversions are on our no list

In ours we’ve still got sizeable eaves storage with a couple of good access points, and a garage. It was a bit of a worry and it took longer to clear out the crap from the loft than the entire loft conversion took - but it worked.

Shop around for builders quotes. How many quotes have you actually had? I got 10 before we did ours.

How much were you quoted? My loft was £60k all in and it added 2 double bedrooms and a bathroom. That paid for itself and more x

Was that 2020 or earlier? apparently costs have doubled at least since then.

Ours was done 2022, in London. £57k.

edited to add that ours was an Lshaped dormer with 2bedrooms and a separate bathroom. I know lots love them, but en-suites are a massive no for me!! I just think it’s far more useful for an additional bathroom than a ”private use” one.

I think it depends entirely on the area you live in and also how much equity you have, as well as whether you plan to stay there long-term.

Our loft conversion has cost around 30% of the value of our house but ultimately, it would've cost significantly more to move (Loft conversion has cost £75k, to move to a comparable house would cost at least £150k more than ours). We also like where we live and want to stay here long term (at least 10 more years). We've already lived here for 7 years and the house had gone up in value a lot since we bought it, which meant that even after remortgaging to pay for the loft, we would be unlikely to ever end up in negative equity. Our house isn't fancy or in a posh area but it made sense for us.