Side return in London - is it worth it?

[Hollyhedge]

This is hypothetical but London, zone 3, victorian terrace. Would cost of a side return increase valué of property enough to cover cost? I know there are a lot of variables, but building so expensive now am wondering…

It depends I've had colleagues loose money when selling

Thanks for replying. From what i can gather it would be better to move to a place that had already done it

We thought about it in our 2 bed terrace in S London but decided against it as it would have made outside maintenance (gutters etc.) a right pain.

Also, having looked at the costs and local house prices, if we had done, we might have broken even, but no way would it have added any real value to the house when we sold.

Thanks. If I am in a situation where I could do this I think I would move. Would like to go from 4 beds (i did loft 7 years ago) to 3 or even 2 bed with side return/ more living space. 6 months disruption to maybe break even is unappealing in my situation

Yes, they lost money in the sense that it cost a lot to do and it didn't really move the dial on the house price.

I would say it's worth it if you're doing a whole ground floor renovation - kitchen extension etc, but on its own probably not. But do consider value to you in terms of lifestyle etc. Would you be putting in a utility room for example, or just making a bit of extra space?

In general I reckon you only break even on building work in London as costs are so high. And yes you have to live with the disruption in the meantime.

However if it means you avoid having to move then that it does save you a fair bit on stamp duty and moving costs.

I don't think a side return does make much difference to value.

We moved into our house 4yrs ago - it had been completely done with a side return and loft extension. Soon after we moved in a virtually identical but run down house (with no side return or loft conversion) came up on our street - it sold for £75k less than what we paid and at the time I kicked myself for paying too much for my house.

However, we are now friends with the owners of that house and they have done the loft and side return exactly the same as our house and it has cost them north of £150k for the building work alone. They couldn't live there for months either.

We had a 3 bed Victorian terrace, zone 2 SE London. Had hoped to do a side return and loft extension, but of course it was way more expensive than we planned for. Quoted about £80k for the side return and £65k for the loft (this was back in early 2022, I’ve heard horrors of neighbours being quoted double that now). That didn’t include kitchen costs etc.

We chose the loft extension, and all in with bathroom bits, decorating etc I reckon it came out to £80k. But added about £150k onto the house price. We then sold up and bought somewhere in Zone 3 SE that had the open plan kitchen as this is ultimately what we wanted as a family.

I’d speak to an EA but I’ve no regrets; side returns have become far too costly for such a small amount of space

We have a Victorian terraced house in London and are renovating but we simply can’t afford to do the side return as well. We’ve already done the loft (added a bedroom, office, and shower room plus eaves storage) and are now focusing on the kitchen / dining room.

The costs of a side return in London now are crazy (probably about £100k) and I just don’t think it would be worth it as it wouldn’t add enough to the value of the house.

Also I’ve been to lots of houses where this has been done, and although you do end up with a lovely big open plan kitchen / diner (usually with a lovely big kitchen island), you also end up with a sort of defunct middle living room which is now quite dark as it doesn’t have a window, and just becomes a kind of walk-through room.

It seems a lot of money to gain a metre of space on the width of the kitchen, and to lose the light in the middle living room.

I know I’m late to this post but exactly what @Swoopingswift said.