Would a five-bedroom house with a small kitchen put buyers off

[Lastgig]

Would you buy a 5 bed house with a 10ft kitchen?
We're trying to sell our house and to date have had no luck. It's a modern house.

We've been quoted silly money to take down a supporting wall between the kitchen and the breakfast room. A new small kitchen would cost us ( due to family contacts) £5k. The wall plus new flooring and moving gas/electrics £25k.
I do need a more accessible kitchen due to my disability but I also need to downsize.

Agreed. I don’t think your issue is the kitchen OP.

I quite like it personally. I won't be alone.

I'd hang in there for a bit longer OP.

I am an I dunno. If it was well designed with sufficient storage I'd be ok with it. The kitchen where I live was huge when we moved in, but it has a door to the hall, a door to the diningroom and double french windows to the garden so its a bit of a B to use the whole space as kitchen. We split it to a smaller kitchen and space that can be used for a breakfast bar, small office, coffee space and so on.

This is so true, a new kitchen would far more put me off than an older one, as I would want to put my own in either way, and an old one I could justify ripping out.

Now I've seen the plan I really like it. I love a utility and I'd be happy to have some storage in the breakfast room.

I wonder whether suggesting that the breakfast room area could easily become a home office would be a selling point, OP.

Working from home on some days has become a real option for many people in the last few years.

I think that it may appeal more than "breakfast room" does.

A decent sized kitchen is incredibly important to me, but it wouldn't put me off at all as long as I knew there was potential to knock through/build an extension and the price reflected the disparity between number of bedrooms and kitchen size. Yours obviously does have potential to be opened up into the adjoining room so I'd definitely get a reference to this put into the EA's description @Lastgig.

We've previously purchased several houses where the kitchen has been disproportionately small - one was a five bed with four receptions (it included an attached annexe which was where the only, tiny kitchen was). We extended that house and knocked through from one reception into the new extension to create an enormous kitchen which the house really benefitted from. When we sold, it was the kitchen that had the wow factor our viewers and eventual buyers were drawn to.

Another had a kitchen similarly sized to yours but four beds - we moved the kitchen into a more appropriately sized room, which made a huge difference to how we used the house.

Obviously some buyers won't want the hassle of doing the work (we DIY ours, but are a bit mad!) and others will be happy with a small kitchen. You can never please everyone, so in your position, I definitely wouldn't invest in doing the work to sell - particularly as whatever kitchen you put in may well not be your buyer's choice!

Yep, my sister put a new kitchen in her house to sell it, she only moved around the corner and passes it all the time, about a month after the new people moved in the new kitchen was in a skip outside 🤣🤣 just wasn't to their taste clearly, such a waste though.

It didn’t put me off but my offer reflected the cost of me knocking through the kitchen and dining room and putting a brand new kitchen in.

So whether you do the work yourself, or you buyer does the work, either way, you’ll need to pay for it I imagine.

Do not replace that kitchen! It is absolutley liveable and likely to be ripped out by the buyer to create a bigger kitchen.
That floorplan shows great potential. The problem must be something else.

Yes looking at the plan it’s absolutely crying out to have the breakfast room and kitchen combined.

You could try pricing that in, but some people simply won’t want to do the work because of the hassle/ uncertainty on price.

So I would do it. Also agree with those saying turn the dining room into a bedroom (and possibly add a shower downstairs in the utility space) and consider staying too.

I think the breakfast room should be labelled as a dining room because where the "dining room" is at the moment does not flow naturally from the kitchen.

What is now the dining room could then be labelled as a study/snug/second reception room.

It would put me off, yes you can extend into the breakfast room but at 3m deep it would still be a small kitchen. Ideally I'd extend to make it deeper. Its definitely not worth your while spending money on it though.

We bought a house like this, because it was the cheapest in the street and after a long time on the market another 10% was reduced which meant we could then afford it.
We plan to build the extension ourselves over time.

So either you will have to knock through that wall or knock the price off.

I am quite experienced in buying and selling (work in property) and in my opinion I don’t think it’s the size that’s the issue, the kitchen itself is actually fine, plenty of floor and counter space and then you have a separate utility and dining room so it’s not the square footage that’s the issue. I think it’s just the bittiness of the rooms, there isn’t a great flow. Even knocking down one of those walls (either breakfast/kitchen or kitchen/utility, even living room/breakfast) would open it up a bit and make it more appealing and look more spacious for a buyer. Change the dining room at the front to another lounge.

10ft isn't huge but it's not tiny. I'f there's scope to knock through it sounds like it would the be a decent size, so as a buyer I'd view it with the mindset of its potential. I'd definitely allow for that within the selling price, though - and be realistic, since you've been told how much it would cost!

For me, kitchen layout and quality of fixtures and fittings outweigh the actual size. It’s a case of can you work practically in the space.

What price point are you at? If it’s a 400k house vs 800k is going to make a lot of difference as to whether or not the 25k is worth it.

How on earth is removing a wall plus gas and electricity work costing £25k? Is it more complex and involves moving or replacing a boiler, and even then? Gold plated rsjs?

I actually really like the layout but would be interested in seeing how you've shown the other reception rooms - breakfast room / dining room and lounge is a lot of different spaces that could be configured various ways.

if you aren't having viewings, maybe post some more photos and people can suggest things? People looking but not viewing means there's something they keep noticing that is a problem.

A small kitchen with only expensive options to extend has lowered the value on my in laws very nice, arts and crafts beautiful house.

We bought an Edwardian house with 5 bedrooms - it's huge - the kitchen was tiny, no utility and a dark dining room, and shonky conservatory being used as a dining room. We bought knowing we'd extend. It's now got a kitchen and utility that is proportionate. That was pre Covid though - I don't think we could have afforded it now...

This is what I’ve been told my EAs. Unless someone is buying a new build, most people want space to put their stamp on the place and a kitchen is key (whether this involved knock thought or not).

I’d rather have a perfectly clean and serviceable kitchen (which Op’s is - it’s nicer than hundreds of kitchens I see on rightmove) that I can rip out later without feeling guilty that it is new.

You've reminded me of the (non-listed) detached Arts & Crafts house we sold back in January 2018. That had four beds, three receptions, office and a kitchen that was 11' x 11'. We'd intended to relocate the kitchen to a reception room (across the hall, so couldn't knock through) that was approx 17' x 17'. A change in circumstances meant we had to sell with the layout as it was/renovations incomplete. We found lovely buyers to whom we explained our plans to move the kitchen, thinking that as a family of four with two teens they'd do this....

Instead, they replaced the existing kitchen in its original location, spending £££ on bespoke cabinetry etc. When they sold last year they really struggled despite the gorgeous kitchen and whilst they made a profit, it wasn't on the scale I'd have expected if the kitchen were large enough for family use. I'm convinced buyers were put off by the size compared to number of bedrooms/reception rooms.

We had exactly this, we bought a 5 bed modern house with a tiny kitchen. We knew we couldn’t live with it, paid £30k below asking price and had the work done before we moved it. I wouldn’t have bought it if we couldn’t have done the work immediately though.

It would need to be priced lower than neighbouring houses who have opened up and/ or extended the kitchen as most buyers will want to do that work. We did that work when we brought our house but it was priced appropriately (discounted) so we had the budget to do it.