Purchasing next door

Mojisola

Neighbours along our road virtually doubled the size of their house by building a massive extension (which is what you're planning by knocking two together) - took them years to sell and they had to keep reducing the price - the house was out of keeping with the area and people who could afford such a big property had plenty of other options.

Slithery

Indeed.
Knocking through two properties usually ends up with one property worth much less than the sum of the individual parts.

Tiglet2

Don't forget you will have to merge the two titles with the Land Registry, the two sets of utility bills, the two sets of council tax, the two postal addresses.....

nstar21

Thanks all. The properties are exactly the same size. 

You’ve given us a lot to think about. 

martindow

Some local authorities are very loathe to give planning permission for this as it reduces the housing stock.  I agree with a post above that the first thing to do is to speak to the planners.  Then to estate agents about the combined value of two separate houses compared to one double-sized as you propose to see how much value you might lose.

davidmcn

Tiglet2 said:

you will have to merge the two titles with the Land Registry

No you won't. Pretty commonplace for one property to be spread over more than one title, it's not an issue (provided they join up!).

hazyjo

I agree with those saying it'll be hard to sell and may be worth less.

What's the road like? All houses a similar size, or are some big and others small? Just because you merge two houses does not make it worth twice as much. Especially if you live in say  a terraced street where they're all virtually identical.

There will obviously be a ceiling price in your road. If someone has X amount of money to spend on a house, why would they buy in your road? Have a look on rightmove at what and where you could buy for what you *think* your house would be worth after combining the two.

Thrugelmir

nstar21 said:

We want to knock it into one house. We love where we live but need more room so thought the ideal solution would be to buy next door and turn it into one house. 

Probably be better to extend your own property than try to reconfigure two similar houses into one unit.  

AdrianC

Thrugelmir said:

nstar21 said:

We want to knock it into one house. We love where we live but need more room so thought the ideal solution would be to buy next door and turn it into one house. 

Probably be better to extend your own property than try to reconfigure two similar houses into one unit.  

Indeed.

Some years ago, a house near to where we used to live was very heavily redeveloped. They started doing all the structural work - then applied for PP to do it as two separate properties, not one... But this was refused, so they went ahead with it as one. The floorplans and layout made absolutely no sense, and were very badly compromised. UNTIL you remembered that rejected planning app... Then it suddenly made perfect sense.