Adding Value to Your Home – Price Boosting Tips
Adding Value to Your Home – Price Boosting Tips
For many people buying a home is the biggest investment they’ll ever make, and consequently, it becomes their biggest asset. Adding value to your home, through carefully considered home improvements can help protect and nurture that investment, so, when it comes to selling you achieve the best possible price.
In recent years housing affordability in many parts of the country has been a significant problem – particularly for young people. What was once just the family home has taken on a new level of importance in terms of what it means, financially, to the homeowner and their family.
Investing in structural changes (usually an expansion of some kind) and major cosmetic changes can add significant value. When that investment has been carefully considered, planned-out and implemented, it might mean an outlay of approximately five or six per cent of the value of the home increasing the property value by upwards of ten or fifteen per cent. Or more, and more.
Some of the Things People do to Improve Their Home
A recent trend has seen people converting a cellar or basement into living space. But that needs a certain type of house – age, location and size-wise – to start off with. Loft conversions have long been a biggie as has turning a garage into a living space.
People with large second homes have often realised potential by converting it into flats. PropertyPriceAdvice even estimates how much you can add to the value of your home, depending on the type of improvement.
Homebuilding & Renovating, and propertymark also offer advice.
And of course, there’s the conservatory.
The ‘Indoor-Outdoor Room’
The word ‘conservatory’ often conjures up images of lavish period piece TV dramas, but it’s no longer just associated with sprawling country mansions or large family homes in the ‘posh’ parts of town.
The conservatory is an interesting, multi-purpose hybrid of a room. It can add significant extra living space while providing an airy, spacious feeling with lots of natural light.
Usually being an addition to the back, or occasionally side of a home, means fewer concerns about privacy. Conservatories are great entertaining areas. They’re also a great long-term investment that boosts the value of a property.
Conservatory Advantages
Conservatories come in all shapes and sizes – which of course means variation in budget and what the addition will ultimately mean house price, or value-wise.
There are a few must adhere to regulations but adding a conservatory to a property is actually one of the easier, lower angst level improvements that can be made to a home.
Sometimes thought to be a part of the home to be more often utilised in summer, it isn’t a prerequisite by any means. A well-considered (don’t compromise on the quality of materials used), well-built conservatory can be used comfortably all year round.
Conservatories use a lot of glass – double glazing is a minimum regulatory requirement. One way to beef up the conservatory in terms of year-round useability is in the roof construction.
There’s no rule book that states a conservatory roof needs to be glass, or predominately glass. A tiled conservatory roof should be a consideration when wanting to utilise the additional space created throughout the whole year. Equally, if the home already has a conservatory but could with an upgrade, a tiled roof will both increase useability (it’ll make it a lot warmer as well as saving on bills) and help in adding value to your home.
What’s the Right Improvement for Adding Value to Your Home?
There are many ways to boost the value of the family home. Some of the things that yield the best ultimate returns, ie cellar and basement conversions, can take the longest and can prove most stressful. Others are relatively simple by comparison.
Consider what the change will do for your home aesthetics-wise, consider your budget and what the change will mean in terms of increased property value. Considered and carefully thought-out improvements to your property will pay dividends in the short and long term.
Also, think about useability and benefits of the improvement while it’s appreciating. A home is an investment, but it’s a home first and foremost.