What's the best way for a new attic to increase the worth of a house.

Running_Horse

Nothing worse than a cheap botched loft conversion. EAs usually advertise them as 'a useful extra room', but cannot call them the 3rd bedroom families want. I would never buy one, but would buy a loft conversion complying with relevant building regs.

chucknorris

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Attic conversions are disportionately expensive.

Loft conversions are normally cheaper than extensions. But of course each situation needs to be judged on its own individual merits. It shouldn't just be about the cost either, it should be about 'adding value'. I am probably going to extend our house, but I would much rather build an extension than convert the loft, I am intending to add more space than a loft extension would add anyway.

purch

And remember in Dumb Britain it is the number of bedrooms you can squeeze into the property that is far more important than the actual size of the property when it comes to determining "value"

Generali

I remember listening to the following remark on a renovations show. If you have an underused, dusty, hot space in your roof why not convert it back from an attic room into a proper loft?

I'm yet to see a really good loft conversion. They're always terrible in one way or another. If they were that good an idea, houses would come pre-converted.

lostinrates

When we got pp for a loft convention and extension our architect cautioned us our best return on an investment was selling the property with the planning permission in place .

Andy_L

Speak to your local council's building control office. Without their sign-off then selling will be tricky and, as said earlier, with just ladder access you wont get it classed as living space

the_flying_pig

i truthfully think an attic will only quite rarely add real value.

these days, most people [e.g. i don't mean the gazillionaires who supposedly buy from the candy brothers] who are buying in almost any part of London is one or more of:

(a) making a huge financial commitment to buy;
(b) buying with a profit motive of some kind in mind; and
(c) reasonably open minded about getting work/improvements done to a place that they've bought.

also, with zoopla & so on around the information on what a house is worth is better than ever before.

put it this way, if you're talking about [say] a house where the unimproved going rate is about £300k, and a loft conversion costs about £30k to do, i don't think you're going to find too many people who'll cheerfully pay £375k for an improved place. why would they?

by far teh best reason to do a loft conversion is that you have a use for that space yourself. you can probably expect to get your money back on it but i wouldn't necessarily say loads more than that.

kabayiri

purch wrote: »

And remember in Dumb Britain it is the number of bedrooms you can squeeze into the property that is far more important than the actual size of the property when it comes to determining "value"

And en-suites. Don't forget them.

What self respecting Barratts new detached generic build for the up and coming aspirational exec would be sold without the requisite 5 beds and 5 en-suites ?!

OP, if you had an en-suite attached to the en-suite ... why, I reckon you'd be the first in your neighbourhood

michaels

the_flying_pig wrote: »

i truthfully think an attic will only quite rarely add real value.

these days, most people [e.g. i don't mean the gazillionaires who supposedly buy from the candy brothers] who are buying in almost any part of London is one or more of:

(a) making a huge financial commitment to buy;
(b) buying with a profit motive of some kind in mind; and
(c) reasonably open minded about getting work/improvements done to a place that they've bought.

also, with zoopla & so on around the information on what a house is worth is better than ever before.

put it this way, if you're talking about [say] a house where the unimproved going rate is about £300k, and a loft conversion costs about £30k to do, i don't think you're going to find too many people who'll cheerfully pay £375k for an improved place. why would they?

by far teh best reason to do a loft conversion is that you have a use for that space yourself. you can probably expect to get your money back on it but i wouldn't necessarily say loads more than that.

Locally, home counties, that is bizarrely not the case, people will pay considerably more for extension or 'move in' redecoration that it costs to buy unimproved and pay for the work to be done. Your 330/375 numbers are probably quite realistic.

the_flying_pig

michaels wrote: »

Locally, home counties, that is bizarrely not the case, people will pay considerably more for extension or 'move in' redecoration that it costs to buy unimproved and pay for the work to be done...

i'm surprised, particularly in the case of a loft extension... you can pay someone to do that with next to no disruption to your everyday living. you'll barely see the builders in your house. it's not like say a side return extension where you have to do without a kitchen or whatever for at least 3 months.