Moving vs Extending

jlew80

We're currently experiencing a dilemma over whether to move home or extend our current home so want to compare the costs.

As we have moved home in the past, we are aware of the costs associated with moving, but not with extending.

Can anyone give me a list or any costs we should be allowing for to extend (except for building/furnishing costs and the £176 planning fee)?

Thanks

LEJC

How big an extention do you plan and what areas of the house do you plan to change as a result of the extention...

when we once extended a house...quite a major project we found that afterwards everywhere needed decorating and freashening up to bring it in line with the extention...extention costs were about £50k and revamping the other areas and the garden which took a bit of a battering with the building work cost an extra £6k...but once ut was all complete it was well worth it and we stayed an extra 7 years.

macman

Don't forget Building Regs approval.

I_have_spoken

Have you watched all episodes of Beeny's 'Double your house for half the money' on 4OD?

jenniemiller177

I would move, however personally I am not keen on the thought of work being done in the house. Have just seen a friend of mine extend their kitchen and its taken about 4 months. She has had enough of it!

I guess it depends on your situation though. Do you intend to stay in the house for many years? Does you existing house offer everything you want once the extension is in place? Can you get more space in a new house compared to the cost of an extension?

sweaty_betty

I'm told a ball-park starting point figure for extensions is £1k per square meter. Obviously this also depends on what you're extending, e.g. we're having an extension and bigger kitchen, so we have kitchen costs, flooring etc on top of this.

We looked around to investigate the price of houses in our area (where we wanted to stay) which had an additional bedroom and a large kitchen/diner, as well as 2 receptions. The price of these houses way exceeded the costs of extending (not including the costs associated with moving), so it was a no brainer for us.

Hintza

One question should be would any extension push the perceived value over the ceiling for the neighbourhood. Nothing worse than spending £50k if it does add value close too or in excess of £50k.

Of course there might be other important factors such as friends, family or school catchment that might outweigh purely monetary decisions.

KennyH1

If you are looking to extend then base the cost of works on £1000/m2 and this should give you a good idea of total build costs.

Main costs of extending are

Planning Application
Building Regs
Structural Engineer
Build Costs