Before I make an offer...

Antman27

Hello all,

FTB here, so apologies if this is a daft query. 

We saw a house we really liked but there are two major changes needed. It currently has a galley which we want to be open plan. The wall between the diner and kitchen felt hollow when I tapped it so might not be load-bearing (but I could be wrong). We'd also like a bathroom in the ground floor which could potentially be achieved by converting the attached garage. In order to make an offer, I need to know if these changes are feasible and a ballpark estimate of the costs/time.

I know what we want are fairly common so there shouldn't be any concerns but being an FTB with no experience/knowledge about properties I'm apprehensive about putting in an offer and finding out later that we can't make the alterations we want (maybe because of technical issues or planning) - in which case we would have to pull out after incurring some costs. I don't think anybody will want to make a trip to give a quote before I've even bought it, so don't have the benefit of a professional opinion to inform my decision. 

I could just be overthinking this so grateful for any advice on this forum.

Thanks,
A 

jonners666

Both those would be internal so 'shouldn't' require planning. 

Are you planning to knock off the costs of the changes you want to make from the asking price? If I was the vendor I'd be telling you to jog on if you tried that.

Antman27

jonners666 said:

Both those would be internal so 'shouldn't' require planning. 

Are you planning to knock off the costs of the changes you want to make from the asking price? If I was the vendor I'd be telling you to jog on if you tried that.

Thanks. I'm trying to get an idea of the costs to manage my finances. If the costs are likely to be under £20k I can offer the asking price, however if it is significantly more expensive then this is a no go.     

seradane

Difficult to say without seeing the property, and also knowing what part of the country you are in (London trades are more expensive than, say, up north) but a new bathroom might be £5-10k. Removing the wall if not structural will be very little. If structural could be another £5k. New kitchen is probably £10k up. 

So your £20k budget will probably allow you to do a basic job on both those things, but do take that with an entire barrel's worth of salt.