What works does this house need?

[mumtobe245]

We are considering buying this house - it is of good size and in the right location. It does however need a lot of work to be habitable.

We’ve got about 1.5 years, and a budget of £100k to do it up before we move back to the UK and live in it.

What works do you think the house needs before we can move in, based on what you can see? For context, we are a family with 3 kids aged 2, 5 and 8.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/174359255

It needs everything doing to it - obviously needs a kitchen. Probably new bathroom. The ceilings look like they need redoing. There’s probably damp which will need sorting.
It’s hard to tell everything from those few pictures. I would suggest getting a very thorough survey done to find all of the problems.

Are you handy?
New electrics
New boiler and probably rads
Looks like damp upstairs so you will need to find the source, probably the roof
New bathroom kitchen
Looks like single glazing? Is it in a conservation area
Decorating and new flooring through out

There will be other stuff you can’t see in photos

I would think it has damp looking at the walls. So full damp course anf damp proofing
The windows most likely need replaced (as mine do...)
Roof checked
Chimney re pointed

It’s got loads of potential but needs so
much work. You’d need a full survey obviously. Honestly though I think you’d need more than 100k for a project that size. Building work is so expensive these days. Unless you can do some of it yourself and really stick ti
a strict budget.

I would be worried about uncovering expensive issues like with the roof..

Would you need a mortgage? Would be difficult since it looks like there's no usable kitchen.

I like the layout downstairs but I would want to add another upstairs bathroom.

I have no idea about the cost of the renovations you'd need but I would be very hesitant to do a project like this when you're not even living in the same country. Major renovations tend to need major oversight.

What a stunning house. 100k is not enough, time frame is totally achievable.

I would carry on looking and buy something closer to the time, doing a lot of work and leaving it empty doesn't seem like a good idea. I assume it's cheap for the area. It's very close to roads on two sides, it doesn't look so enticing on street view and some of the internal views seem to be exaggerating the size of rooms. I wouldn't mind the work, as said pretty much everything needs doing, but it would fail on the situation for me. Might be worth spending what it would cost to renovate and get something already done.

I think you'd need double your reno budget.
Needs so much work and loads of unknowns.
Sorry.

Thank you all for your advice.

it’s really helpful to know that most seem to think the 100k budget is not going to be enough. We are able to stretch it to 150k, but not much higher. This is helpful to know as we decide on our offer to put forward

We are fortunate enough to not need a mortgage, so the lack of kitchen wont be an issue

I take it from your post that you're not in the UK at the moment and don't intend to be for 18 months. A massive renovation project like this would be near impossible to manage from abroad (not to mention that you'd probably need to almost double the budget if you hired a project manager). So many unknowns to discover that almost the least of your worries is 'what needs doing?'. Whilst these development potential houses are lovely once finished, the pain and money to get there probably makes it not worth it in your situation. I'd add that £100K to your purchase budget and see what's available in a turn-key condition.

£100k not enough.

Oooo lovely house! I'd love to get my hands on it.

Doing it up I think you'd need to be in the uk or have a very competent and available project manager.

Depending on the finish and quality of fittings I think youd need 150+. I'd personally want a lot more, its a big house, I'd want top quality fittings and finish.

We've just finished the structural work on a very similar property. 4 bed, detached 1930's but further from London. You could easily double the cost and then add more IMO.

-When was the house last lived in? There is a little known government scheme to get derelict properties back into use. We had to get the councils 'empty homes inspector' out. He noted down the obvious things that needed doing- boiler, windows, kitchen etc. He then checked the council records as to when someone last occupied the house. This list and letter then became our certificate. If a house has been empty for 2+ yrs, you only pay 5% VAT on goods/services to get it liveable again. If its empty 10+yrs, you pay 0% VAT. Its only for permanent fixtures in the home like a boiler/windows, not curtains, beds, sofas. Very few trades had heard of the scheme and wrongly think its the owner/builder scheme. We found our local builders merchant, tile/bathroom shop and several others did accept the certificate though.
-Would anyone be living onsite? No way would I allow such works to go ahead without someone overseeing things
-Is there anywhere on the land/driveway for a skip? If you need to keep it on the road, you will have to get council approval and most likely pay each time
-Our house also didn't have a working kitchen so it was cash buyers only
-In our case we knew from the outset that it would be a complete renovation, but there were still things we hadn't accounted for because they weren't obvious till say the wall was removed.
-We love the area, the road, neighbours etc so it was worth it in the end.

I would want to knock the whole kitchen, reception, utility into one large kitchen lounge room, but that looks like you would lose a shower. Only one upstairs bathroom. Quite a bit of damp in the photos so you would need to know the reason. Then to details such as are the windows rotten, can the bedroom with the walk in wardrobe be easily configured to one larger room, what sort of spec do you want on the kitchen and bathrooms? Please keep the crocodile radiator, every house should have one 😁.

The pipes need incorporating into the walls for one

Its beautiful. You need a project manager if you arent in the uk. For the £100,000 you could prioritise things and just do part of it and save up to finish the job.
So the mist important things are fabric of the building stuff. Difficult to tell from the photos but the windows look ok, so the next thing would be to get the roof checked. Repairs are a few thousand and a new roof would be £20,000 ish?
Then the next thing is electrics and heating. Not sure the costs for thses nowdays but maybe abother £20-25,000 if both are needed including a new boiler
No idea how much a project manager would be?

Given that the ground floor probably needs remodelling, i would spend money making the first floor really nice, new bathroom,replaster and decorate and stick a cheap temporary kitchen in downstairsand just live with the downstairs till you know what you want to do.

I'd say £200k easy. Could be amazing though!

It’s not on a very nice road - whilst this house is beautiful those opposite are very ugly and scruffy - loads of flats on the corner so probably a very busy road - I would do a walk around the immediate neighbourhood at different times of the day and week to get a better impression.

Do you have trusted / recommended builders lined up? They have ridiculous waiting times currently and most trades are coming in at £500/day.

I agree that your budget is nowhere near enough. You’d need to double it. The big question is, would it be worth £900k when renovated? Also, if you’re living abroad, who is going to keep track of the Reno work?

We did a total refurb of our 1960s bungalow. Cost us £65 plus extra for the garden - we stopped counting by then! That was for total rewire, new heating log burner, replaster everywhere, new flooring, new kitchen, new bathroom, decorating, new front door. No extensions or anything and mid-range fixtures and DH did quite a bit of the work. It adds up like you wouldn't believe!

This house looks beautiful but it will cost way more than £100k if you need to do everything that we did to our house, tiny by comparison to this.

A quick look around rightmove at the surrounding area suggests it's overpriced. I would have thought more like £5-600k considering the work that needs doing. As well as the market as it is at the moment.

Being on a corner check planning laws regarding fences facing the highway. You can only have a 1 metre high fence. You won't have any privacy and although no height restrictions on hedges it would be a while for one to grow to shield you from the road.

Absolutely everything and I think you realistically need a budget of £300k. You won’t be able to do it on £100k. You’re looking at a full rewire, plumbing system, windows and possibly roof before you even begin anything cosmetic,

Agree with @TroysMammy. The location looks problematic to me. You could do something amazing to create a light filled space with huge windows, but that corner position with the low wall would be like living n a fish bowl until screening plants grow. And then it might feel dark and hemmed in.

I don't think in London your budget is enough. The obvious things are new bathroom (10k min), kitchen (15k), electrics (15k), heating / plumbing (10k), replastering and redecorating (15k), new flooring throughout (20k-30k depending on flooring). To maximise value you'd want to reconfigure the space both upstairs and downstairs which will also be expensive. If there is damp, issues with the roof or windows which are look possible you'd be in for a very big bill. You should have around £250k put aside to take this on and you should check the ceiling price with an agent to make sure you'd get that back with the house done up.