Improving your home is an ongoing adventure, from the first day you get the keys to the last few weeks before you place it back on the market. We decorate for personal enjoyment, for freshening up the home and, in some cases, even to add value back into it.
If you’re looking to sell, or simply looking to increase the value of your investment long-term, you should consider the latter point, and the major renovations that facilitate adding value.
Of course, major renovation projects like these are often hamstrung by budget, which leads homeowners to settle for less-effective decorating measures when embarking on a refurb. There are various ways to drum up funding in order to add equity to your home, though; whether a lifetime mortgage for middle-aged homeowners or a quick borrow from the bank of Mum and Dad, finding the money can work well in your favour for the long term. Which renovations should you fund, though?
Kitchen Renovation
Kitchen renovations are the most effective home improvements in terms of wow factor, to say the least. New kitchen units and state-of-the-art fixtures can win over buyers quickly, as well as add tangible value to the property. This is an area in which many spend most of their time, so investing here can pay dividends.
Loft Conversion
Fundamentally, value is added to your home where square footage is added. There is a great deal of unused square footage in loft and attic spaces, which can be converted to liveable spaces with relatively little overall effort. A major benefit relating to loft conversions, too, is that most do not require planning permission to get underway; provided your conversion remains within the horizontal and vertical boundaries of your home, you are free to renovate.
Extension
Of course, far more value can be extracted with the addition of more usable space – making extending your home the single most effective route to increasing the gross value of your home. Two-storey extensions can add as much as 20% to the value of your home, if they include an additional bedroom and bathroom – however, they can also cost a pretty penny to get underway, which can eat into your profits if you’re looking to sell sooner rather than later.
Garden Landscaping
Finally, an often-underrepresented form of home renovation relates to your garden. Gardens tend to be spruced up a little for the benefit of first impressions, but there is real, tangible value to the act of landscaping your property’s gardens properly.
At its most basic, your landscaping renovation might add pathways, flowerbeds and maybe even a form of patio or decking to enjoy the garden from. This kind of work alone can make the garden far more usable a space, with consequent increases to potential property value. Major leaps in value occur where you introduce new structures, such as a sunroom or external office space.
