Add Value To Your Home With These Top 5 Tips!

With house prices currently at a record lows, and remortgage deals all but dried up, more people in the UK are choosing to stay put rather than move home. This way, homeowners can wait until the market is more favourable and in the meantime make some quite worthwhile changes to their home. There are huge financial benefits to making changes within the home, be them large or small, as they can significantly increase the price of the home. Bigger changes such as home renovations and extensions can prove to be sound financial investments providing they are done correctly.

If your intention is to make a few amendments to your home in order to make it easier to sell when the market does improve, and providing you have the capital to support it, renovations and extensions can add instant value. While improvements such as these should be treated as long term investments and do require a lot of time, money and effort, they can be hugely beneficial. Although you must be realistic in your expectations, for example if you do not have enough space for an extension, then do not attempt one! Similarly, if you life in a terraced house, huge renovations may not be feasible. For this reason, any changes you do make should be properly thought out. Here are a few pointers to get you going...

1 Build on to your home: One of the really popular methods of adding value to your house is to build an extension. Planning permission will normally be required any decent architect and builder should be able to advice on this. It cannot stick out like a sore thumb so make sure it blends into the existing building. Anything that looks odd or say, overly encroaches into otherwise useful space (i.e. the garden) may actually reduce the value of your property, which would not be good.

What you are building the extension for counts just as much, if not more, than just building an extension for the sake of it. The room being added must have a purpose and rationally add what is needed, for example adding an extra bedroom to a 4 bedroom house with one bathroom Is not going to attract many people. Similarly, an extra bedroom when the kitchen or living room is small in comparison to the rest of house does not make sense and will not add much, if any value onto the property. If the extension is being added to make the property more enjoyable than functionality, It is going to be worthwhile, so have a long hard think if your planned extension can do that.

2 Put a Room in the Loft: When someone suggests adding an extension onto your property, you rarely think of extending into your loft space, as a result loft conversions are completely underestimated. The loft space of a property can amount to a significant square footage and in return can be transformed into a comfortable bedroom for example. Also, they tend to be much cheaper to construct than the general extension, usually around GBP 8k to GBP 15k and, as the space is essentially already there, the disruption caused is extremely minimal. The only downside to this form of extension is that it can obviously only be done on certain homes, so you must research if your home could in fact benefit from this.

Another reason for the burgeoning popularity of conversions is the turnaround time on completion, with many conversions (not all) not needing planning permission they could be completed in 4 weeks at the fastest. As we touched on earlier, there are minimum requirements, the major one is the roof can only be 2.4 metres at the lowest for a conversion to fit and work, with sides as steep as possible, or it will not work. So what is the major benefit of a well done conversion? How about a 20 percent increase in property value, not bad for such a medium type improvement!

3 Adding an en suite: En suites are a good addition to larger houses, or house with one master bedroom that dwarves the others. For the minimal amount of space they use they are great value adders, they can be built to be discreet so it does not stick out and look tacked on, using a space such as a walk in wardrobe would be more than enough space for an en suite. Always keep in mind though that an en suite is an additional bathroom, so if the bedroom in question is next to the bathroom, do not reduce bathroom space. A family house with 4 bedrooms is bad enough in the morning when everyone needs the bathroom; it would be ten times worse if there was just an en suite available!

4 Add value in your basement: Properties with basements have a good head start on properties without one, most are just used as storage space or maybe a utility room. But they are a prime space to convert and expand, creating a new large space to be used by you and your family, most basements are cold and dark, so they are not considered for renovation very often. Storage space can still be kept by incorporating it into the renovation, by building racks and shelves into the room or separating a smaller section as a storage room. They tend to be much quieter as well, so can provide a perfect office space, meditation room or even a workout room/gym. As basements can be the quietest part of a property, popular uses for the new room can be office space, a study or den, maybe even a games room or gym, emphasis being on a space where you can relax and de stress.

Extending into a basement can also be an option to homes that do not already have underground space. Although, as I am sure you can expect, this will take much longer to complete, around 12 weeks and can cause a lot of disruption; many homeowners decide to temporarily move out until the work is completed. Similarly, this will cost quite a considerable amount to do, around GBP 80,000, as the house foundations have to be reset and expensive machinery is generally needed to dig below the property. This form of extension, on any level, is not a decision to be taken lightly.

5 Knock down internal wallsThis is perhaps one of the cheapest home improvements you could undertake and youd be surprised just what a difference knocking a wall down can do for a living space. This is a particularly useful option for homes that are small in size. Adopting an open plan lounge and dining room for example, by knocking down the adjoining wall is a quick and easy way of extending your daily living space.

Knocking down walls does not just provide a property with more living space, but it also maximises the amount of natural light in the room which is a fantastic pulling factor for potential buyers. An influx of natural light makes the room appear open and inviting, which means it will undoubtedly become the focal point of compliments from visitors. So, while this list is by far from final, it does provide some useful tips and advice if you are looking to add that extra bit of value onto your property. So, even if you arent looking to sell your property, how about giving it a bit of a revival today, it will certainly add to your lifestyle!