Your home is one of your greatest and most expensive assets, but its value can go up and down over time. So even if you’re not looking to sell any time soon, you might be thinking about how you can add value to it and ensure you can sell for more than you paid. Thankfully there are a lot of different ways you can do that, and since we spend a good chunk of time helping people improve their homes, we thought we would share some of the more popular options.
Kitchen Makeovers
Kitchens are one of the rooms that make or break a house for a lot of buyers, and they can have a huge impact on how they view and value your property. This is mainly because practicalities like storage, cooking space and utility areas play a big role in the everyday running of a home. So much so that the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found a new kitchen can increase your property value by as much as 4%. So long as you opt for a neutral colour palette, a kitchen refurb is a good way to go.
Second Bathrooms
Bathrooms are an essential for any home, and having more than one is incredibly desirable. Adding on a second bathroom or even just an en-suite can increase your property worth by around 5%. Just make sure you’re not adding value in one place and taking it away in another. Sacrificing a bedroom for the sake of an extra bathroom could actually do more harm than good, so if you don’t have space for a new bathroom you can still add value by renovating your existing one. New taps, bathroom suite and a power shower can go a long way!
Extend Your Property
It’s no secret that bigger properties demand more money, and so if you want to add real value to your property, one of the best options is to extend it. By adding an extension to your home you’re immediately creating more floor space, which translates to a higher property value. In fact, Nationwide Building Society reports say that an extension to the ground floor level can increase property value by around 5%, while adding a bedroom to create a three-bed house can increase it by 12%. Ideally you want to make your extension as large as possible without sacrificing too much garden space, and you’ll need to check if you need planning permission before you build anything.
Convert Your Garage
Garages are a bit of an odd space for modern families. Cars have got much bigger in recent years, but garages haven’t – which means some people have ended up with garages they can’t actually fit a car in! And so garages are most often used for other things, rather than storing cars, which has made garage conversions incredibly popular. In fact, having a garage conversion can add as much as 10% to the value of your home, which makes it one of the simpler ways to add to the resale value. Whether you convert it to storage space, a workshop or a games room, it’s almost always a good investment.
Add Curb Appeal
Curb appeal is basically how attractive your property is from the outside, as viewed from the street. If you’ve ever seen a property that looks a bit drab but when you get inside it looks amazing, you’ve seen a house with low curb appeal. When you’re looking to sell your house curb appeal matters, and it can dramatically increase the value of your home and the amount you can sell for, so it’s worth investing some time in. A few simple things you can do to boost your home’s curb appeal include:
- Repaint your front door
- Refresh the classing, rendering or pointing on your home
- Repaint your external windows
- Tidy up your pathways
- Manicure your front lawn
- Hide the bins
- Refresh your driveway
- Fix broken gates and fences
At DNA Brickwork and Builders we specialise in things like extensions, refurbs and conversions, so we’re perfectly placed to help you add value to your home and make it a nicer place to live in the meantime. If you’d like to know more about our services, or want to see how we can add value to your home, just get in touch with the team today.
