Home Investment: How To Increase The Value Of Your Home

Making well thought out improvements to your home not only makes it nicer to live in but also increases the value of your home. In many cases, these improvements add more in value to your property than it actually costs to make the improvements.

Decorate Your Home

Decorating your home could cost up to £1000 but could actually increase the value of your home by up to £5000. Houses that are already priced higher or are in an area where other houses are at a premium will tend to see the highest increase in their property value. So for example, if you live in London you will likely make a bigger investment than someone from a cheaper area outside of London even if you are doing the exact same thing. As much as you might like all of your trinkets and London souvenirs, just make sure that you don’t overdo it when you’re having photography taken! 

But Don’t Overdecorate Your Home

You should put most of your decorating effort into communal areas like kitchens, bathrooms and living rooms. But you should avoid overcomplicating things in any other rooms as if buyers perceive your home to be decorated in bad taste it could actually knock up to 10% of your home value. If you need to buy high-impact furnishings such as curtains you should purchase curtains in a solid colour that goes well with the colour of the existing room.

Knock Down A Wall For Open Plan Living

Knocking down internal walls within your house can make your house seem bigger and provide a larger social area for the people living there. It could cost you around £3,500 to knock down the internal wall, but you could stand to gain nearly £50,000. However, this depends on your existing property price and the cost of property in the area. Houses that are already priced at a higher value stand the most to gain. Knocking down an internal wall will only take around a week, so you could add a significant amount of money on top of your property value.

Make Your Garage Usable

Cities in particular often lack adequate parking spaces making homes that have a functioning garage highly desirable. Storing your car in a garage is also a safer place to store your car as opposed to storing the car on the street. If you currently use your garage for storage it may be time for you to have a clearout or consider storing items in different places. In many houses the items commonly stored in garages and attics are often a combination of different people’s possessions, this can make it difficult for an individual member of the household to sort out and understand what items to keep and what items to get rid of. If you find yourself in this situation the best thing to do is to schedule a shared task with other members of your family, so that you can communicate easily about items that mean most to you and items that you wouldn’t miss. You can also set a limit to the amount of items you want individuals to get rid of when it comes to decluttering your home. 

Build A Garden Room

If you have the space in your garden and you would benefit from an extra room on your property a garden room may be a good option for you. This room could be used for a variety of different purposes including a home office, games room or even a bar! You could probably get away with making this room a bedroom if you included the right insulation and a toilet and washroom amenities. By spending around £6000 you could add over £10,000 to your property value.

Create A Downstairs Toilet

Downstairs toilets are convenient for a range of different people, including people with mobility issues or those entertaining guests who don’t want guests wandering upstairs. You could spend just over £1,500 on converting an unused cloakroom into a toilet room and increase your property value by up to £26,000.  

Improve Your Back Garden

Making improvements to your garden can add up to £9000 on top of your property value for the cost of around £4000. There are plenty of things you can do if you have a good-sized garden; such as adding more seating areas to your garden, adding flowerbeds to your garden or you could pave out a section of your garden to enclose under a patio. Adding a patio space will increase your ability to entertain guests, this is a desirable feature and can add up to 20% to your home value at a cost of around £900 – £2500. 

Convert Your Loft

Depending on the size and structure of your house it may be worth it for you to convert your loft space to create more floor space. In some cases, you can create extra bedrooms in your home which can dramatically increase the value of your home. By spending around £20,000 on converting your loft you can increase the home value of your house by up to 40,000.

Get Planning Permission

Getting planning permission can be a long process from start to finish, so even if you are looking to sell your home in the near future, applying for planning permission if your property has room to expand can be desirable to future buyers. As they don’t need to go through the whole planning process themselves. You can submit a basic planning permission application for about £400 but you could end up increasing your home value by up to 10%. This represents a significant home improvement investment opportunity that doesn’t even involve you making any changes to your house.

Improve Your Kitchen 

If your kitchen is dated it may decrease the value of your property, by making improvements such as updating kitchen surfaces and cabinets to more modern styles could increase your property value. You could even just give your kitchen cupboards a repaint to make them more appealing to buyers. Another thing to consider is installing a stick on the kitchen backsplash in your kitchen, these not only come in a range of colours, patterns and styles but also protect your kitchen walls from grease and water. If your kitchen is big enough, why not consider adding a kitchen island that not only can give you more surface space to use, but you could also incorporate a breakfast table into your kitchen?

Add An Ensuite To Your Master Bedroom

Adding an ensuite to your master bedroom not only makes it more convenient for you but can also increase the value of your home by up to £15,000 for just an investment of up to £5000. 

Upgrade Appliances 

Upgrading fixed appliances such as the oven and hob setup could increase the value of your house. But it is worth noting that you should not go out of your way to buy from expensive brands or buy the top of the line appliances. You are just after appliances that work well and are reliable, if you can get that from a cheaper manufacturer you will be making a more significant investment from making these changes in your house.

Conclusion 

Increasing the value of your home doesn’t need to be expensive or take a long time, there are a number of things you can do for relatively little money that can dramatically increase the value of your property.