How to Add Value to Your Homes
What are the biggest turn-ons and turn-offs when it comes to home design?
😞 Carpet in the bathroom?
😍 Wood burning stove?
🤔 Dedicated bedroom for family pet?
Hammonds Furniture has delved into the question of what adds value to a home and revealed some interesting results.
Some of the usual suspects – noisy neighbours, Japanese knotweed and proximity to a pub – are all mentioned as elements that would either prompt a homebuyer to ask for a discount or disregard a property entirely.
Similarly, mould and signs of pest infestation can hit a property's value by 20%.
Even quick fixes, such as unattractive wallpaper, holes in the wall from previous fixings and weak showers can put people off a house.
While most of these turn-offs are unlikely to affect new build properties, there are a few that could. For example, who would have guessed that 13% of people would be poff byfby laminate flooring?
What is more telling, however, are the features that can prompt a buyer to open their wallet that bit wider.
15% of people would pay more to be close to public transport.
13% would pay extra for a log burner.
A well-maintained, sizeable garden with a seating area can add up to 25% to a house’s value.
A carriage driveway can add 15%.
And a conservatory can add 10%.
Much has been made of homebuyers’ changing expectations since lockdown, with a greater emphasis on ample outdoor and working spaces,which makes the context the above figures are viewed in vital.
For starters, it will be telling to see if the number of people who would pay more to live near public transport drops over the next year, as more people grow accustomed to working from home. Living close to public transport has a number of perks, arguably none more so than saving precious personal time for commuters; however, with remote working looking less like a means to an end and more like a genuine long-term alternative for many workers and companies, the pull of living a few streets away from a train station may not be quite as strong as it was a few years ago.
Sticking with the working from home theme, we are yet to experience winter in this new set-up. Summer saw many working in the garden. Office arguments about how many windows to have open and how many fans to have on were but a distant memory. But with winter approaching, working in comfort may get a bit trickier. Cost verses comfort will perhaps be an internal struggle, as people are reluctant to use the heating during the day for a long period of time that they would have previously been in the office for. As such, the appeal of alternatives to gas or electrical heating, such as log burners, may be boosted.
As already mentioned, the value of a garden is well-documented and something developers are very much aware of. What is less well-documented, perhaps, is the value a conservatory can add to a new build. Developers looking to cash-in on an under-realised market may consider conservatories as part of future designs – possibly even combining them with an alternative home working space.
During such a transitional period, it is difficult to predict what is a fleeting fancy and what will be defining property layouts for decades to come. Perhaps a year from now, we’ll have a better idea of which trends were reactionary and which were revolutionary.
