Buying a house with the intention to add on an extension

NannyV

Hiya, we are out growing our 3 bed semi, and have been looking at 4 or 5 bed detached houses but it means we comporomise on garden or space or area for our price range.

So then Ive been thinking maybe we could get another 3bed but with space to the side to put an extension on for another 2 rooms.

I don't know much about how to do this though, how do you know if you would be granted permission, can you find this out before you put in an offer? If the mortgage calculators say you can borrow £200k for example, can you borrow that and use £140k to buy the house and £60k to add on an extension or do you need a different loan from the bank for that?

Anyone done this before?

Thank you

NannyV

ps - how much does your average extension cost? Thinking it would most likely adding on 2 rooms above a garage, or maybe 2 rooms at the top and a study.playroom under neath

Yorkie1

NannyV wrote: »

I don't know much about how to do this though, how do you know if you would be granted permission, can you find this out before you put in an offer?

Yes you can put in an application for planning permission if you don't own the property. But the property owner will be notified, and it's probably quite costly to put in a proper application if you're not the owner. Plus it might take some time to consider so I wouldn't recommend it as a line of action.

Probably a better way to have an informal idea of whether the extension might be granted is to see what has been done to the other (similar) houses in the street; i.e. if there is any precedent for what you want to do.

Also, if you view the house, ask if the seller knows of any reason why an extension might not be granted e.g. main sewer running down the side of the house.

If the mortgage calculators say you can borrow £200k for example, can you borrow that and use £140k to buy the house and £60k to add on an extension or do you need a different loan from the bank for that?

If the house is valued at £140K, then you will only be granted a mortgage for a % of that sum - probably up to 90 or 95%. You cannot borrow more than it is worth in anticipation of doing works.

You'd need to fund the extension yourself or through a separate unsecured loan, after which you might (not guaranteed) be able to remortgage to cover the increased value if your affordability still adds up and the % you've borrowed doesn't go over a lender's limits.

Anyone done this before?

Thank you

See above.

NannyV

Thanks, I think the area we are looking at does have a lot of extensions, will have to look into it more before we think of that route, maybe ask for an informal chat with the local planning office for advice.

The houses we would look at would probably cost £240,000 and our current circumstances are that our mortgage is 174,000 and our current house value about £240,000 but a recent calculator says we could borrow £250,000 so if we borrowed about £205,000 then with our equity we would have £35/40 k towards the extension and need to save for the rest or a seperate loan? is that right?

lincroft1710

Before you go buying a suitable house, talk to an architect or builder and try to get an idea of the cost of the type of extension you want. Remember building works are very disruptive and seem to go on forever.

Are there no suitable extended 4/5 bed semis in the area you want to buy?

kingstreet

NannyV wrote: »

If the mortgage calculators say you can borrow £200k for example, can you borrow that and use £140k to buy the house and £60k to add on an extension or do you need a different loan from the bank for that?

No. You can't.

You will be able to borrow the lower of;-

- what is considered affordable based on your incomes and status
or
- a maximum of perhaps 90% of the purchase price
or
- a maximum of 90% of the value of the property.

Lenders don't let you borrow more than the property is worth for you to do improvement work. You buy the property, then finance the work yourself. Once it is done, you may apply to the lender for additional borrowing, or to remortgage elsewhere, where a surveyor will revalue the property based on its new value.

Don't forget not all improvements see a £ for £ return in improved value.

yoyoegg

Round my way, a number of 3-beds have had the attached garage demolished and rebuild over two storeys. Typically, the floor area is extended to give a utility room and downstairs loo at the rear and above is either two bedrooms or a new master bedroom and snazzy wetroom. The garage space is sometimes retained or that's converted into a cinema room/games room. About £60k.

NannyV

All the 4/5 beds round here are about £350 minimum and even then its not likely to be in the secondary school catchment we want, and has a smaller garden than we have now etc.

Where as if we extended on a 3 bed we could keep the garden size and get in the school catchment.

Thanks for the info on what the banks do with regards to lending, I can make a start now on what options there are, or aren't!

more_money_for_me

We moved around August last year to do just this. Same reasons really, lack of affordable large house where we wanted to be. We found our ideal location with enough room to extend. We asked an architect we had used before for an opinion and he felt there was a good chance we would get roughly what we wanted. We bought the property and asked the architect to draw up plans, larger kitchen, new utility room, new sitting room, with 2 beds above. He dealt with the to and fro with the planning department, total cost was £1500, you could probably do it cheaper if you did more yourself. We got roughly what we wanted with some set in on the front, and a slightly reduced first storey as the compromises. We kept a chunk of equity from our previous property to pay for extension. Still waiting for builders to come back with quotes, but expecting 60k ish based on spec. It is worth reading up on planning advice from your local council, as some things are pretty set in stone, for example 1st floor must be 12m (I think) from back of any neighbour. While other things like overlooking are more subjective and can be argued either way. We took plans round to neighbours before we submitted them, so that there were no surprises, we would have tried to compromise if there was. As it was no problems and no objections.

onlyroz

We currently have a planning application submitted to do a loft conversion on our 3-bed house, to add an extra bedroom with ensuite bathroom. A few things to consider:

- The planning application itself is costing £172
- The loft conversion will cost in the region of £33k not including any local authority fees, and the cost of any fittings (e.g. bathroom suite, carpets, fitted wardrobes, decorating etc). This is for the installation of a rear dormer, and a hip-to-gable conversion on the side.
- Many extensions are now covered under the permitted development rights, and if this is the case then it is *much* easier because planning permission is not required. Do a google search for permitted development to get an idea of what is and isn't allowed
- You should be able to make a general enquiry to the local authority, before putting in a full planning application, to get an idea about whether a particular plan would likely be accepted. The council might charge a small fee for this advice.
- One issue we have encountered with our own planning application was one over parking spaces. We were advised that current parking regulations suggest that a four-bed property needs three parking spaces, and for us to have any hope of getting a planning application approved we would have to add an extra parking space to the property. So take this into account when viewing properties because if the garden is small then this might not be possible

NannyV

thanks onlyroz, great tips especially about parking as I never knew that! I will start speaking to a few builders I know for their advice too and may send an email to the planning department just asking what the process is and time frames etc.

Ill look up the permitted development rights too.
We do actually have a converted loft room here, but although there are roof windows, the height isn't quite high enough to turn it into a usable room as you can't fully stand up at the highest point and access is through a ladder in one of the rooms so just doesn't work well at all. We do also have a small office area downstairs which could just squeeze a bed in but the boiler is located in the cupboard in there too. So again, not ideal but is there as a back up if need be. Such a shame there is no room to extend here as we could fit 3 cars, well actually it has already been extended out the back and made into a bigger 3rd room with en-suite.