Our Friday Five this week is all about different ways to add value to your property, be it in your own home, or a rental property for landlords. Enjoy!
5. Pave over the front garden
If you live in an urban area, paving over your garden will probably add as much as £50,000 to your property’s value, considering the premium of parking. Whilst planning permission may be needed, the £10-20,000 needed to create a paved area could prove to be a considerable investment.
4. Get rid of the garage
Convert your garage into some rooms. 90% of garages in Britain do not house any cars and for around £10,000 your conversion could add real value. As a rough estimation, you should calculate square footage gained by price/square footage in your local area.
3. Install a basement conversion
At around £300 per square foot, this is not a cheap option, but carrying out a basement conversion can see some real returns. One must be careful when carrying out such a structural extension of your property and ensure to consult engineers and experts and see how this could affect your landlord insurance. In London you can expect to see a return of 200% or so on your investment.
2. Build a conservatory
A decent conservatory could see a property’s value rising by around 10%. The key word here however is ‘decent’ as it is all too easy to get a poorly designed and installed conservatory. Key is to make the conservatory feel homogenous and part of the rest of the house.
1. Go for a loft conversion
Finally, the best way to add real value is to carry out a loft conversion. Whilst not affecting the house structure you must ensure to strengthen joists. Once this has been accomplished you can fairly easily gain an extra bedroom and bathroom. For every penny you spend you’ll see your return doubled, or around 10-15% increase in your property value.