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.

I think this is a good strategy, thank you. As others have suggested, I think we’ll likely do work to it such as knocking through the walls to make a combined kitchen/dining/living space at the back, add in doors to make a separate space for the front reception room, extend into the loft to put in a master bedroom and ensuite, perhaps update the bathroom and maybe add in a WC under the stairs downstairs if space and the house layout allows.

A friend was recently quoted £120k for a loft conversion.
I know someone else who was quoted £100k for a side return extension.
Building costs are absolutely insane right now, there’s no way the loft and downstairs build will be anywhere near as low as £150k.

That roof has a very low pitch for a loft extension. Have you actually been up there to see?

No I haven’t been up there yet - I might drop the estate agent an email to ask if I can go into it during the second viewing.

I think it’s a decent house for the area with scope to improve.
Just be realistic about what you can do for your budget over time.

Thanks very much everyone for all your posts and advice. I really appreciate it.

I think the house has potential but I agree with others that it’s overpriced for what it is.

We’ve scheduled a second viewing for next week with my BF’s parents, who are pretty savvy and practical, so it’ll help to have them see the house and get their thoughts on whether they think it would be a good buy, and I don’t think we have anything to lose by just going for a second viewing. It’ll help us review everything with a clearer eye.

I think we have a few options open to us:

1. Don’t make an offer on this house yet or on anywhere else and see if prices come down after the 1 April stamp duty increase. See if anything else in the area comes onto the market and what those prices area.
2. Go for a second viewing of the house with our family and check feasibility of doing the loft extension and downstairs loo. If everyone thinks it’s not a crazy idea to make an offer, make an offer for the house closer to £525/550k (as this is closer to what it seems to be worth and would give us some money to do the work mentioned above on it) and see if the owners accept. If the owners don’t accept, go for option 1 or option 3.
3. Go back to the drawing board and look in a different area and a different type of house. I’m not sure how to go about this, to be 100% honest, as we’d like to live as centrally as possible, to get to work reasonably quickly and live somewhere that feels like we’re still in London, to get a house rather than a flat and we like Streatham as an area. Does anyone have any ideas of areas they’d recommend we could look at?

@GoldOnyx I thought there were some properties in NM for 650k & under but admittedly haven’t looked recently. I agree that transport links helps property but think in this new property landscape things are a little unchartered. Certainly affordability and hybrid working has disrupted some of the more traditional patterns of gentrification in London. Good luck with whatever you do.

and we like Streatham as an area.

Have you spent much time near the house? As I said Streatham is very varied, DH is from the part that borders Balham so I know it well, we met decades ago.

Building costs are absolutely insane right now, there’s no way the loft and downstairs build will be anywhere near as low as £150k.

I was quoted a yr ago 70-80k for a small back extension ex VAT, so that’s on hold for now, I won’t recoup the costs as don’t plan to stay for that long in current house.

You should never do major work thinking it will improve the value of your house. Extend and convert the loft if you need the extra room. We did both but have carried on living in the house for another 30 years so we think we’ve had our money’s worth. The house looks really good value to me and if there are just the two of you I’m not sure why you want to get busy with so much building work.

Original price was £600K - info:

Donnybrook Road, London, SW16

Offers in Excess of
£585,000
Price Change History
28/12/2024
Initial asking price: £585,000
Additional Price Change History
1). Previously listed (view here) with the following price changes:
25/09/2024 - Price changed from £600,000 to £575,000
27/04/2024 - Initial asking price: £600,000

There is a plug-in for Chrome called Property Log that reveals price history on RightMove 😉

Thanks for the property log thing, no idea it existed!

i thought this too. Without looking really in depth with an architect etc I’d think you’d need a three figure budget just for the extensions and work you’re wanting to do… I would also say whatever you estimate for the renovation, double it. You’ll inevitably spend more.

I think two things (in addition to what I have already said!).

The first is that I wouldn't do a lot of work on a house I didn't plan to stay in forever. I agree with PP that you can never guarantee to recoup what you spent and it's best to do it because you're committed to the house long-term and want the extra space.

The second, though, is that it's worth thinking about whether you want to move or whether you want to commit to this property and think about changing it later to suit you rather than moving. We have always bought well within our means and never over-extended because we'd rather be confident of an affordable mortgage and mortgage-free as early as possible in a smaller house in an area we know with neighbours we love, than be overextended and terrified in a house that took us to the limit of our budget. It took us 10 years to decide we are committed to our current house and we're now spending money on it so that we have the house we want to live in for the next forty years. It's really liberating to be thinking only about total budget and what we want as opposed to worrying about breaking even on a sale in the next few years.

Having read everyone’s comments on this thread so far, which have been really helpful, we’re thinking we won’t do a downstairs extension and will just reconfigure the current downstairs kitchen/dining layout, as others have suggested on here.

We may eventually do a loft extension, but no need to do that for at least a couple of years, when we’re properly thinking about starting a family.

We think the main work we’ll focus on first is
making a combined kitchen/dining/living space at the back, making the garden nicer (e.g. removing paving slabs and turfing it fully, and planting some stuff), probably updating the bathroom, possibly adding in a WC under the stairs downstairs and potentially extending into the loft, which next door have already done.

@Bungrung I have spent a reasonable amount of time in the area and quite like it and it has everything we need.

I have to say, that is one ugly street! I would caution against doing too much work because that street has a long way to go before it is going to support and offer a return on a huge outlay.

If there are other houses along there that look as though they have been updated then yes, dive in and hope you catch a rising tide, but all too often streets like this are full of houses either owned by people who are happy with the way they are, or are rented out and the landlord isn’t interested in spending money they won’t recoup.

You need to do a lot of research before you end up with a house has cost you way above the value the street commands . Material and labour costs make it much harder to flip a property these days.

OP, are you wed to SW London or would you consider SE?

Someone earlier mentioned Bromley - it’s a lovely area and fantastic schools. But I don’t think you’ll feel like you’re in London.

Have you looked at areas like Crofton Park, Honor Oak, Forest Hill? All would give you a very easy commute to Westminster and are a lovely blend of family and London feeling.

@GoldOnyx

it was previously listed here

in December 2023 for £600,000

It does seem overpriced.

It's very useful, although it does rely on members of the public actually reporting these previous listings, so there will be many homes on the market that were listed previously but without this additional and useful information.

Your options sound perfectly sensible and visiting with your partner's family is definitely a good idea if they are practical and experienced. I think it's inevitable that more properties will come on the market in the next 6 months, some of which would probably be suitable for you. The falls in price tend to take a lot of time to play out but this may well speed up with the increase in tax and the ongoing economic deterioration. Having said that, if you see a house you love and plan to live in long term and can secure it for a good price, you should go for it.

I too, didn't realise about the property log extension before I posted (then saw you'd already posted the details) 🙈@rainingsnoring

It's extremely useful.

@GoldOnyx
that plan you posted is very much a lifetime home plan with the shower and WC on the grid fl.
Itsnot necessary really and the rear extension, whilst everyone’s go to at
the moment, isn’t right for every property. This one looks like it has a bigger garden. I wouldn’t sacrifice external garden space in a city for just more internal space.

Agree, in your property a walk in wardrobe is a waste of space ( if you need an office ) but if you find a house with its already done its really not much much of a hassle removing it.
A sledge hammer, a screw driver, some filler to make good, paint and a free weekend will do it.

If you go for a second visit, you could ask the neighbours about their loft conversion. In our road, none of the roof pitches are technically high enough for a loft conversion. Some were done before building regs changed so didn't need to worry about it. Those done more recently (including ours) had the ceilings lowered on the middle floor to give the height in the loft. Added an extra £5k to the cost plus we lost 20cm from the middle floor rooms (meaning they are now 240cm high instead of 260cm). But the loft ceiling doesn't feel low. Don't underestimate the huge mess it makes across the whole house - the entire middle floor needed redecorating, new carpets, bathroom tiles got wrecked (we'd factored in redoing the bathroom anyway), built in wardrobes needed replacing etc. It was major major works.

This area is very close to my house. The area is a little on the rough side but I think up and coming. Where the Homebase is will be redeveloped into a large tower block, but that may make the area more gentrified. Who knows. I know a few nice families on that particular road, and plenty in the surrounding area. There are also a few nice shops / pubs locally on Greyhound Lane (David's Deli is our favourite!).

There are two great schools nearby - Granton (outstanding), which will be the nearest I think, and Woodmansterne (I think it's rated. good, but the advantage is it has an all through to secondary school kind of deal). Some friends are selling their house on that road but I can't see the listing. However they did the loft and extended out the back I think, so you can make the house pretty nice if you have the funds (but it's obviously expensive to extend - our loft conversion cost about £100k in 2023, but I reckon it might be a bit cheaper for a loft conversion in this type of house).

If you can save costs by doing some yourself I'd that. Finding a decent tradesman is very difficult.

Also to note that there's currently a consultation about parking controls (i.e. you'd need to pay for a permit) in the area. I don't think that should put you off though. It will happen to most of London sooner or later and a lot of nearby areas already have such controls.

Oh and from personal experience, if you do buy this, I recommend doing the loft first not last. The loft work can require redecoration of other area, especially if ceilings need to be lowered. And you don't want to be doing a loft conversion with young kids (or any kids frankly) for all sorts of reasons. Been there, done that. Much more efficient to start with the loft first, even if it means having to wait a while to do the downstairs work.

with a house that needs refurbishing like this you should put an air source heat pump and all the underfloor insulation, Plus new central heat system and plumbing. Potentially also solar on roof and a battery.

if you prioritise extensions and new kitchens and cosmetic work you will not do these more important measures after

that house looks like once you start working on it you’ll pretty much strip it back and start again, so now is the time!