Would artex ceilings put you off buying a house?

Gazelle1985

Hello,

We will be putting our house on the market in the next year. It's a two bedroom Victorian terrace in London (zone 4) which would appeal to first time buyers. It's in good decorative order throughout, apart from ugly artex on the ceilings in every room apart from the kitchen and bathroom.

We've had a quote of £1,100 to replaster the two bedrooms, hallway, porch and dining room, and we're trying to decide whether it's worth it - would it add enough onto the value of the house to make it worthwhile?

I'm trying to get a consensus about whether artex ceilings would put people (mostly first time buyers) off buying a house - any thoughts?

Thanks

moneyistooshorttomention

It wouldnt (hasnt - thinking of "stuff" that was there on ceiling of current house) put me off it.

But - if I found another house I rated equally in other respects - then I'd choose the other house first (ie to save myself the hassle/expense etc of dealing with the ceilings).

Seabee42

I have plastered the ceilings to get round this. As to whether its worth it that depends what the competition is like where you are. Often presentation can matter in a sale.

Rain_Shadow

Artex varies a lot. If it was fairly restrained it probably wouldn't put me off but if it was some big swirly pattern with a Himalayan profile I would most likely just walk away.

If I were you I'd have the ceilings skimmed. it may not add any value but it will certainly add to the number of potential buyers.

Don't forget the time and cost involved in allowing the ceilings to dry properly and be repainted.

eddddy

As rain shadow says, you would also need to repaint.

You could just repaint the ceilings, but that might make the walls look 'tired' in comparison.

Also, depending on your plasterers, you may get stains on the wall paintwork from splatters of plaster.

Davesnave

It didn't put me off buying my last two houses, but neither of them had the huge swirly patterns, just the restrained splodges.

A few people might be put off, I guess, particularly those who read about the asbestos in it, but if the house is strong in other respects, it may not be worth skimming, which is messy and disruptive, never mind the cost.

With any soon-to-be-sold house, it's a matter of deciding what its greatest weaknesses are, and whether any of them can be addressed at a sensible price. If it's only artex, yours must be brilliant!

Gazelle1985

Thanks everyone - some good food for thought!

Would you negotiate down on the price of a house with artex ceilings? We're just trying to figure out whether spending £1,100 (which we think is quite good value) will be recouped when we sell.

stator

Unfortunately my house is covered in artex.
Unless you house is already renovated to a high spec I wouldn't bother. Most people don't care about the ceilings.

tomelk31

We are FTB's and just in the process of buying a 1960's house with Artex ceilings in most rooms. The lender asked for us to have Asbestos samples taken to see if the Artex contained it as it came back in the survey to say it may contain it. It came back saying all the ceilings had White Asbestos in.

It hasn't put us off however I imagine it may do other buyers. We are in the fortunate positioning of having a plasterer in the family who is going to skim the ceilings for us at a reduced cost.

How long has the Artex been there?

bmthmark

Didn't put me off at all as I know that it can be sorted fairly easily.

eddddy

Gazelle1985 wrote: »

Would you negotiate down on the price of a house with artex ceilings?

Many potential buyers don't think like that.

They look at a number of houses and perhaps cast one aside because it had "horrible artex ceilings".

Or looking at it another way, you are reducing your target market to:
- people who don't mind artex ceilings, or
- people who are prepared to get the ceiling re-plastered (e.g. like bmthmark)

(It's difficult to say how much that restricts your target market, or the impact on price.)