Is this house worth the price? What do you think about our plans to update/extend it?

[GoldOnyx]

Hi all, DP and I have been looking to buy in south London.

The overall plan has been to buy somewhere that’s convenient for both our workplaces and close to a station.

Also, rather than paying a premium for a high spec renovated place, we’ve been looking for somewhere that needs a bit of work and updating. We’re also looking for somewhere that has scope to extend, as we’re hoping to start a family at some point - not very soon-ish, but perhaps in next 3-5 years ish, and see ourselves settled in the house long term.

We recently went to view a house in south London that we think ticks these boxes:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/156280841

We’ve booked in to do a second viewing soon, but I’d be keen to know what you think of the house and whether you think it’s worth the asking price. Judging by comparisons to other houses of a similar size in its street, it seems a bit overpriced to me, and it’s already been reduced once (although I don’t know what the original price was),

We think the house needs a bit of work and we want to extend it up and out (both possible).

In terms of priority order, we’re thinking: do a downstairs extension and knock through the wall between the kitchen and diner to make it a large kitchen/dining space and also put in a utility room, remove the paving slabs in the garden and lay turf on it and extend into the loft to create an extra bedroom and en-suite, or perhaps two extra bedrooms, and potentially also put a downstairs loo in under the stairs. I know extensions cost an absolute bomb but we have been saving up for that and will continue to save over the next couple of years as we get through the work on the house that needs doing.

We both take public transport/cycle everywhere, which we would continue to do, but later down the line, if we get a car or two, we may consider converting the front yard into a driveway - although it does look quite narrow.

Thanks very much all.

If you like the area and the extension is in your budget, then go for it. Honestly, I don’t think you will make any money on it if you plan to sell in the next 10yrs after doing all that work, but you shouldn’t lose any. If it’s a place you can see yourself calling home then I would definitely make an offer on it to what you can afford.

Thanks @@newhi, it’s really helpful to have your thoughts.

I realise I’ve listed a lot of things we’re considering doing on the house, and they will all cost a lot. We would be keen to make some money after making improvements, if we do sell at some point soon, so is there anything in terms of my suggested improvement that you’d suggest we prioritise or take off the table completely so that we can make some money? What would you suggest would be best to do to add value?

Also, do you think the asking price is fair (bearing in mind you only have the info in the advert to go on!)?

How big an extension would you want to put on? Theres not much of a garden as there is... And is what looks like a big tree in the plot... Could cause issues with foundations..

Are you sure there's enough space in the roof for 2 rooms? Check out the heights... We had to drop our ceilings to get the loft done which added extra cost & hassle...

Maybe see how others have been done in the street.... ??

How long are you thinking of staying there? If for more than a few years then I would do it to how you want it and forget about trying to make a profit. Enjoy living there, get things to how you like them and that work for you. You’ll build up equity in the house anyway. If you’re looking for a profit in a short amount of time, tidy up the garden and do some small kitchen improvements. An extension downstairs could be as much as 25% of the value of the home, so you’re unlikely to make that back in a short space of time.

So if you are looking for a quick profit I would look somewhere else, but if you want somewhere to live for a while, make it work for you as you can’t please everyone and a new buyer will probably want to change everything by anyway!!

Great price for a really good house. Doesn't need much doing. Extending fine, but such good decorative order that selling on as is if the market takes a small rise might be a better option

I wouldn’t bank on making money, not in this economic climate. It’s not a great area imo. I would think carefully re schools

Also I must have skipped the end of your post as didn’t see you wanted 2 extra bedrooms. I wouldn’t do that, a bedroom and shower room possibly but you’ve already got 3 bedrooms and there isn’t really a big enough floor area downstairs to warrant a 5 bed house. Could you knock through the kitchen wall instead of extending? It would be cheaper and you’d still have a garden.

One sold in Jan for 535k (needs more work) so this looks high.

With the price of work now it’s often better to buy somewhere with the building work done.

Thanks all! Really appreciate your thoughts.

@averythinline you make really good points, thanks. We’ll make sure to get the tree in the plot checked out (hopefully the survey won’t bring up anything nasty re the tree affecting foundations). We are in two minds about putting in a downstairs extension, partly because maybe we can get a more spacious kitchen done through knocking through the wall between the kitchen and lounge (as Newhi suggests) and because it would leave us with less garden space. The house next door has actually already done an extension outwards, with some garden space still left though. And I think I was being very optimistic about having space for 2 rooms in the loft…! I think the most we’re likely to get is one bedroom and an en-suite. And tidying up the garden is a v good plan - that is definitely on the list.

@Bungrung from what I’ve seen in my admittedly limited knowledge of looking around the area over the last few years (but not having lived there before), I think actually there are a few decent schools around. What makes you say it’s not a good area, out of interest? And I agree with you re the price, based on the Jan 2024 sale price of the other house in the street - that’s what got us thinking that perhaps this house was overpriced.

That’s what we were hoping to do, but I’ve found those properties where the work has already been done to be very overpriced. What appeals to me about this house is, as far as I can tell, there’s no super-urgent work that needs doing and we can do the rest bit by bit as we go and have different options available to us - e.g. to update the kitchen, we could either extend outwards and make it bigger and also knock through the wall into the dining room, or we could just knock through the wall.

I was referring to secondary schools, primary schools will be fine, they are good all over London. I’m pretty sure the best secondary schools near there are Graveney - but you would have to pass the highly competitive 11+ and the other excellent school is Catholic (if you are Catholic then no need to worry) . It’s not a bad area, just not great imo (particularly for the price) but you can get a bus to surrounding areas with more going on.

@GoldOnyx how much extra were the houses with the work?

You can look at schools here That area is on the border of a few LAs

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/100590/woodmansterne-school/secondary

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/131897/harris-academy-merton/secondary

https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/100638/bishop-thomas-grant-catholic-secondary-school/secondary

Theres also a falling roll issue in London & Im sure I read Streatham is one of the hardest hit areas so when looking at a primary you want to chose one that has full roles. Currently funding is based on head count which is not great if you don’t have enough dc.

A lot more expensive and out of our budget unfortunately - £690k upwards. And sometimes the work wasn’t even particularly well done and we just felt the houses were overpriced for what they were.

I used to own a house in N London with very similar dimensions. I very much doubt that you'll get more than 1 room and an ensuite in the loft, as you say. How much garden would you be losing with your proposed extension? Have other neighbours extended their kitchen/diner?

I think adding a decent sized bedroom might put some money on the value (whether it will be enough to offset the cost of the loft conversion I don't know) but I am less certain about the ground floor extension, especially if it takes out a lot of garden.

A lot more expensive and out of our budget unfortunately - £690k upwards.

can one of you do the work yourself? If not you won’t get a loft & extension for 100k

Personally I think it’s just too overpriced

The combined major works you are talking about (kitchen diner extension plus loft) will cost a minimum of £150k.

For the figures to work in your favour, you'd need the price of that house to be much closer to £500k than £600k, as even once the work is done the house would be hard pushed to fetch £700k for a 4 bed (you could only get one bedroom and bathroom into the loft).

The garden is just under 11m long, so even if you went back 4m (in reality 3.7m with cavities), the new garden would be tiny, reducing appeal to families, limiting value.

I don’t think extending and converting the loft into 2 bedrooms is a good investment. The garden isn’t big enough as it is and there isn’t enough downstairs space for a 4/5 bedroom house. Although you would possibly lose bedroom 3 to make room for a staircase to the loft.

By the time you add the cost of an extension, new kitchen, loft conversion, decorating, flooring etc, you might end up paying the same as a house that has had all the work done.

Thanks Carter. The immediate neighbours on the right hand side have extended their kitchen/diner and they’ve removed part of the adjoining garden fence between the two houses to make way for it.

From checking council planning docs, I can see those neighbours asked to put in a utility room and re-organise their kitchen/dining room space internally. I haven’t found anywhere that gives the dimensions of the extension though. Looks form the plans that they also did a loft extension, which I think I remember seeing at the viewing, but can’t fully remember.

I can see someone else on the same road has also extended outwards, by 3 metres. By the look of the floor plan for this house I’ve posted here, the garden is 10 metres long, so I’d have 7 metres of garden left if I did a similar 3 metre outward extension.

Yes I agree. Sorry OP I dont like the house. It’s not even a large 3 bed at 950ft square and the garden is too small for a proper extension.

Keep looking. Go Victorian where they are deeper houses. Gives more options to play with and even if the sqft is not dissimilar. Somehow it gives more options for separate living rooms which you will need if you want 4-5 bed house to be saleable.

I wouldn’t extend out as you’ll have a tiny garden, even by london standards. I also think it’s unnecessary - you can knock the kitchen and dining room together to give you a lovely social cooking and eating space and still have a decent size separate sitting room.

I can’t really tell how much of the box room you will lose for stairs if you do the loft - but that’s where I would spend my cash. Even if you lose quite a lot you should still have a decent office space, and a 3 double bed + office, 2 bath, eat-in kitchen house will be attractive for resale and work for your plans.

In terms of return, I honestly think planning to break even is about as optimistic as you can be with property at the moment. If you’re planning on staying 10 years or so just make the house that suits you best while being smart about not spending too much.

Same price - better! You dont even have to extend this. You just need to polish a turd and you will make much better money on this just with modernising and decoration than extending.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/154081307#/floorplan?activePlan=1&channel=RES_BUY