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.

Yes it would put me off unless it was priced to allow for the cost of making it a lot bigger.

This is a fab layout apart from the wall. What were the builders thinking?!

I've been looking at a lot of houses in the last few months.
The small kitchen in itself would not put me off, the lack of potential would.

Your house is easy, I could knock kitchen and breakfast room together, still have utility and use dining room for either dining or office.

So no it would not put me off, but I woudl expect price to reflect it somewhat.
And I would put in listing that plans etc are passed to open it up, which gives people the idea and also they have it already planned out.

@Lastgig Which wall is load-bearing? Kitchen/breakfast or Kitchen/utility?
I'd rather take out the utility wall and expand into there (saves moving the gas hob) if they're both load bearing, then re-skim the ceiling, new floor, new units - job done.
I mean, it's a PITA, having work done in a kitchen or bathroom anyway, but it hopefully will get you away from there.
Good luck.

I think doing the work in advance of selling would cause you a lot of stress and money that you might not get back. Building work is dirty and noisy and disrupts the house for weeks. I think there are plenty of people like me who would much rather pay a lower amount for the house in its current layout than a higher price for the work already done as I wouldn't want to pay a premium for new flooring and cabinets that weren't my choice.

It's 3 storeys. You need something more than pixie dust to hold the buggering thing up, unfortunately. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Lastgig did the builder quote you for the full job? It might be cheaper (if you have some time to spend on it) to get services moved individually, then a builder to put a beam in, then replaster and onwards IYSWIM?

If you are doing it to sell would look at being creative - ie if it’s a supporting internal wall then widen enough for line of sight rather than completely take out, keep the layout so you don’t have to move gas and electric. Keep some if the cabinets & replace the doors to match

Takes a bit more thought and planning but should be able to save ££££

Leave the units let the buyers choose those

Yes, a large kitchen is high on my priority list. I would consider it if the price was really good (I.e a good chunk less than it would cost me to make the kitchen bigger).

There's bound to be some people who don't mind as much though.

Yes, it would put me off. Hugely. That’s way too small.

You don’t need to move services (you currently manage, yes?) you dont need new flooring to go through either tbh, it’s not a necessity. If you can get a brand new kitchen for £5k, and it’s decent, I would go for it.

All you really HAVE to do is knock through and that’s taking down a wall, putting in a RSJ steel beam and make good. You can then replace and extend you current kitchen cabinets. You are just doing to sell on, yes? Most people if they want to reconfigure a kitchen will price into their offer, but the hassle of conversion could put people off. I know steel prices have increased in last few years, but what were you quoted to just take down wall, RSJ and make good? If you got a single quote only, they may have priced at ‘silly money’ as they didn’t want it.

That's so true! I get tired of seeing 'fully renovated' properties, with price tags to match, that I would need to spend a fortune on, getting rid or the frigate grey look everywhere, replacing a walk in shower with a proper bath are two things I would need to do. If there are more than 1 bathrooms then I don't understand why on renovation all baths are replaced with showers, many people still like a long soak!

Yes if I was buying a five bed family house I'd expect a kitchen that was big enough to cook for at least five people.

I have a three bed house and my kitchen is still too small, really. I plan to extend at some point.

Also if you've got babies/small children you need a bath, not a shower.

Or reduce price…. Again.

and make clear on particulars that kitchen is a development opportunity

How long on the market?

Yes. We invested 50k to knock our kitchen through and put a big island in.

Sold out house 3 weeks within being on the market. I genuinely think the kitchen sold the house.

I remember when house shopping the kitchen was the biggest selling point for me.

I don’t like open plan, so I think kitchen is okay size. Let the buyer have the mess etc and reduce price accordingly

Did you spend the £50k solely to sell the property?

No - our house isn't 'top heavy' by any means, but we do have a small kitchen by modern standards. It didn't bother us as the long term plan is to either extend it or move the kitchen to another bigger part of the house anywya

Having looked at your floor plan I definitely wouldn’t spend the money taking that wall down yourself. It’s straightforward and buyers will be able to imagine to doing it and putting in their own style of kitchen/flooring etc. If it’s going to cost you £35,000 in total you’re unlikely to get that much back.

it would put me off and I would offer lower if I thought I had to do it but you’re thinking of spending £35k anyway. Why go through all that upheaval.

Categorically NOT too cheap**

I bought a much, much smaller house with a galley kitchen. It's so impractical. I can't afford to extend. My biggest regret is buying this property.

Yes, a big family needs a decent sized kitchen not a shoe box.

Yes, I imagine it would put people off. DD knocked out the wall of her little dining room create a large kitchen with an island and she’s pleased with it, but her problem is that her 4 bedroom house has only one tiny bathroom and a downstairs loo but no en-suite, so it’s not appealing to house-hunters as a family home.

Just to clarify the 25k is for the whole thing. Wall down, new units and floor.

If we just change the units and appliances it's £5k as the units are available to us and we reuse the floor.