"Solar panels add value to the house"

chrisgeller

I wondered if anyone had actually found this to be true in practice.
It would be nice when doing the maths to hope that the ability to self-generate energy would be seen as a positive and worth a few bob, such that you'd be able to assume you'd get some cash back when you sold up.
In my experience buyers get anxious about anything they don't understand, and there's enough stories out there from Helms and the like to put people off. Might be good for 'the right buyer', but put others off.
Anyone have any direct experience of this?

jonesMUFCforever

First of all I will say that I do not have any on my house.
If I was potentially buying another house with panels on - 1 I would want to know if they have been paid for fully - I would not touch with a bargepole a house with panels still on finance.
2 How old are the panels and what is their life expectancy?
3 How much do they generate annually - are you paying for any electricity and getting paid for your surplus or is it making just enough to reduce your bills?
4 In the event of them not working what will the cost be to get them repaired or replaced?

Without some hard facts and figures I cannot tell you if 2 identical houses were on the market 1 with panels 1 without - which I would choose.

If you are asking me whether putting them on your house would mean your house valuation increasing by their cost - I would have to say no - just my opinion you understand.

JKenH

There are about 1m houses with solar panels compared to say 20 million where they might have been fitted but aren’t. That tells a story - that the general public don't really think much to them. (I suspect the objection is mainly aesthetic.) There are numerous stories on here of people having issues selling their properties with solar panels fitted.

I have solar panels on my roof and think they are great but I didn’t put them up thinking they will add value to the property. If I was buying a house I would prefer one with panels on and transferable FiT but I wouldn’t tell the seller that and I wouldn’t expect to pay any more for the house - in fact I would try and get a discount.

Petriix

Solar panels (which are owned outright) are a valuable asset. Depending on the FIT rate they can provide a significant income. A potential buyer would have to be pretty ignorant not to understand that.

I'm not planning to sell my house soon, but if I did then I would ensure it was marketed to highlight the environmental benefits of the improvements I've made. I think I'm stubborn enough to actually refuse to sell to someone who didn't get it.

I think that estate agents are mostly pretty clueless about solar panels. I remember seeing a few properties on rightmove with solar panels in the photos but no details in the listing about the ownership or benefits. I would hope that awareness would improve over time.

michaels

In theory the future fit payments should have a net present value calculated by adding up the expected cashflows and discounting them to current values (not forgetting the FIT is index lined) so if I were buying I would factor this in to the house price - and then on top of that is the value of any own used electricity.  As mentioned above though, in negotiating on price the panels would be mentioned as a liability....

mickyduck55

I have panels, am delighted with them and Im on a good FIT which is over £2000 a year.  Given the choice of two properties I would buy the one with panels provided they were owned outright.  As stated above though I don't think I would pay more for them as a new install is not expensive when factored into a house purchase

pinnks

I have panels and would be particularly interested in properties with panels if I was moving.  Not a deal maker or breaker as you can always fit them but if I had two houses on the short list, one with and one without, and couldn't decide I would certainly give a fair amount of weight to the solar installation - but only if it is owned by the vendor. I would never touch rent-a-roof properties.

When daughter was house-hunting she looked at a house with panels and battery.  What I found somewhat disconcerting was that estate agent and surveyor seemed out of their respective depth about them - ridiculous questions/statements made by estate agent like, "Not clear whether the property is connected to mains electricty". The surveyor marked the existence of panels as "amber" risk for no apparent reason.  This would certainly scare many people away from putting in an offer.  As far as I could tell the panels had no impact on asking price, either positive or negative, ho hum...

The sale fell through in the end because the surveyor did not like the sprayed solid insulation because it was in contact with the felt and flagged it as "red", saying the roof covering had to be removed in its entirety, the timbers cleaned, then re-felted, battoned and tiled.  This would mean removing and reinstalling the panels of course and protecting inverter and batteries while the roof was off! So the bank would not lend until that work was done and daughter had to walk away as the vendor would not reduce the asking price to reflect the tens of thousands that work would cost. Certainly an eye-opener as I thought sprayed insulation was the bee's knees.