Whether you are planning on selling your home soon, or just thinking ahead when making improvements to your home, it is really worth looking closely at the work you do on your home before you do it, ensuring that it will add value. Of course, its different if you are in your ‘forever home’ but if you are planning to sell and move sometime in the future, you don’t want to waste money, you want to add value.
Luckily, the home improvements that most appeal to buyers are the same ones that appeal to you. Look at the local market and local housing, you need to judge if what you would be spending would be more than the finished property would be worth and if you’d be spending your money on the right home improvements for the area and the type of people who will buy your home.
For example, a lot of cottages and other small houses have a downstairs bathroom, usually off the kitchen. Sometimes moving the bathroom into one of the bedrooms will add value, but it does depend on the number of bedrooms and who you want to appeal to when you sell. Buyers might expect a downstairs bathroom in that area or type of property, so moving the bathroom upstairs could be a waste of time and money.
If your house has two or three bedrooms and is likely to appeal to younger buyers who have a family or are planning one, they might want the bathroom downstairs. However, if you expect to sell to older, downsizing buyers , they mostly prefer an upstairs bathroom. If you can fit a toilet (and washbasin) upstairs without compromising the layout too much, this can be a good solution.
In areas where parking is tricky, having off-street parking makes is a big asset when you sell. However, off-street parking is a better investment in some areas than others – if you live in an expensive urban area, it’s almost certainly money well spent. The interactive house at www.planningportal.gov.uk has information on what you can do without planning.
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