Are you thinking of selling your home in the near future? Adding value to your property before you put it on the market is an extremely popular approach for both normal homeowners and expert renovators alike.
By investing in home improvements like redecorating, a conversion, or home extension, you could see a significant return when you come to sell up. Many potential buyers are more than willing to spend more on their new home if it comes with all the latest mods and cons.
In the vast majority of cases, you’ll find that those interested in purchasing your property are happy to pay even more than the home improvement cost on top of the original value of the home. That’s because by completing the work before they move in, you have saved them a considerable amount of time, hassle, and disturbance than if they were to do the project themselves.
So how can you add value to your home, which homes improvements are buyers really looking for and how can you fund your home improvement project? The LoanBroker team investigates.
Do home improvements really add value to your home?
Renovating and remodeling your property not only help you to create the home of your dreams but doing so can also add a huge boost to your asking price when you come to sell.
If you’re looking to give your home a makeover, to gain extra space for your growing family without moving, or simply to give buyers added incentive to purchase your home, then there are a number of home improvement projects you could consider.
So what is the first thing you should do?
Find and remedy existing problems beforehand
Before you get carried away finding traders and channelling your inner interior designer, it is absolutely essential that you fix any structural issues first.
Cosmetic improvements and modernizations are often more exciting projects to carry out but if your home has major defects your home simply won’t sell at all.
This could be serious problems in your home such as:
- Structural cracks to walls or ceilings
- Bowing walls
- Sagging or leaking rooves
- Missing or broken roof tiles
- An unstable chimney stack
- Rotting joists or roof timbers
- Collapsed floors
- Insect infestations
- Rising damp and mould
These kinds of defects are usually the most expensive types of work in your renovation projects so make sure you get these out of the way before moving on to decorating.
When it comes to adding value to your home, remedying structural flaws is the most important thing you can do for your property. If you’re unsure which faults are structural and which issues are purely cosmetic, it may be wise to consult a surveyor, builder, or structural engineer beforehand.
Which projects add the most value to your home?
According to the Federation of Master Builders and the HomeOwners Alliance you can add as much as £50k to the value of your property in just seven days. Their research shows the average cost to complete a variety of home improvement projects and the impact they can make on the value of your home and your total profits.
| Type of home improvement | Average cost to complete project | Region in the UK | Average value added to home | Profit made on home improvement |
| Converting space under stairs into bathroom | £2,622 | Cambridgeshire | £8,750 | £6,128 |
| Dorset | £11,928 | £9,306 | ||
| London | £9,683 | £7,061 | ||
| North East | £1,963 | -£659 | ||
| Surrey | £26,708 | £24,086 | ||
| Lighting and decking added to back garden | £3,971 | Cambridgeshire | £5,834 | £1,863 |
| Dorset | £8,946 | £4,975 | ||
| London | No added value | -£3,971 | ||
| North East | No added value | -£3,971 | ||
| Surrey | £7,790 | £3,819 | ||
| Creating open plan kitchen/diner by removing wall | £3,426 | Cambridgeshire | £5,834 | £2,408 |
| Dorset | £26,838 | £23,412 | ||
| London | £48,417 | £44,991 | ||
| North East | £9,813 | £6,387 | ||
| Surrey | £31,160 | £27,734 | ||
| Kitchen improvements (new flooring, new worktops, new cabinets etc.) | £4,127 | Cambridgeshire | £14,584 | £10,457 |
| Dorset | £26,838 | £22,711 | ||
| London | £16,946 | £12,819 | ||
| North East | £3,271 | -£856 | ||
| Surrey | £26,708 | £22,581 | ||
| Creating en-suite in master bedroom | £4,713 | Cambridgeshire | £8,750 | £4,037 |
| Dorset | £10,437 | £5,724 | ||
| London | £14,525 | £9,812 | ||
| North East | £1,963 | -£2,750 | ||
| Surrey | £11,128 | £6,415 |
Each of these projects typically takes less than 11 days to complete and they can potentially add a great deal of value to your home.
Let’s say that you have a home in Surrey worth £224,144 – the average house price in the UK in 2018. If you were to complete all of the above works on your home, you could expect to pay around £18,859 in total.
According to the research, this would then increase your home’s value to £327,638; making you a total profit of £84,635 including the cost of the work.
Before deciding on a home improvement for your property, you should always carry out research to make sure buyers in your area have a demand for them. For example, where decking and lighting in your back garden could add £8,946 to a home in Dorset it would add no extra value to a property in London; leaving you out of pocket to the tune of £3,971.
How to pay for your home improvement projects
While home renovations can add a great deal of value to the property you won’t actually see your profits until your home is sold. That means you will need to pay out for your improvement work upfront and you might not see the return for many months or even years.
That is why so many homeowners choose home improvement loans to fund their renovations.
Home improvement loans in the UK come in a variety of different forms and are built for purpose; allowing you to spread the cost of your redecorating and remodelling over time.
Homeowners can apply for government home improvement loans if they meet certain criteria such as if a disabled person is living there, the home is unfit to live in and poses a significant risk to the occupant, or the home needs upgrading in terms of energy efficiency.
Government home improvement loans lend those in dire situations to borrow money for maintenance work such as building, plumbing, electrical, plastering, decorating, and even sometimes flooring. Not everyone qualifies for these loans and, even if you do, the type of work you can complete will be restricted.
That’s where personal loans for home improvement come in.
Secured home improvement loans
Adding value to your property through home improvements can often feel like something of a catch twenty-two. You need money to pay your contractors for the renovation work so you can enjoy your home more and also make a higher profit when you sell up. But you won’t have the money to pay them until your house has been sold. So what can you do?
Home improvement loans allow you to borrow the money you need to pay your suppliers up front. You can then start to repay the money you owe in manageable monthly instalments. Once you sell your property for a higher price thanks to your modernisation work you may even be able to repay the remaining amount of your loan in one payment.
Personal loans for home improvements are very popular among homeowners in the UK with the option to borrow between £7,500 and £15,000 over three to five years to fund your renovation project.
You’ll know exactly how much you need to pay back each month and how long your loan will last for. That means you can budget around your repayments effectively until you come to sell your property.
Many lenders also offer ‘payment holidays’ on home improvement loans which give you around two or three months before you start to repay your loan.
Find the best home improvement loans with LoanBroker
Here at LoanBroker, we help people find the cheapest possible loan for their home improvement projects.
We have a panel of top home improvement loan providers in the UK that we work closely with. This means we know exactly what they look for in an applicant and so can match you up with the most suitable lender most likely to accept you for a loan.
When you submit your application with us, our intelligent computer system pairs you with the best home improvement loans for you. We then encourage healthy competition in our lenders as they each bid for your business. Our lenders keep offering lower and lower prices on the loans so that you get the best deal at the cheapest interest rate..
Our service is completely free of charge for you. All bidding is done in real-time and automatically so you get your answer within seconds.
To submit your application and start your home improvements as soon as possible, please click here.
