Why Home Improving Beats Moving

We recently purchased a completed barn conversion (cost £500k) with planning permission to build a double garage.
We are looking at building an oak structured Cart Shed type car port that would be sympathetic to the barn conversion.
The cost would be max £25k.
How much added value would the finished Cart Shed add to the overall value of the property?

..... also remember that if you borrow money to improve your home your return will need to take into account extra interest paymnets.

Hi,

A Very interesting article. I have been considering making a number of changes to my current home, as a laymen these have motivated me to begin planning such improvements.

I appreciate that these increases are based a certain property value (e.g. average value of average property as at date) but without this value and a general description it is very difficult to estimate the impact on our own properties of such improvements.

I would also ask in consideration of the fact that there are a number of cowboy contractors out there and also contractors (genuine and cowboy alike) are out to make as much money as possible, would it be possible to indicate what sort of investment each of these improvements would require - adding a loft and extensions is no good if the cost of such work costs a similar amount to the actual increase in the value of the property. I realise that this can be a very difficult thing to answer since every individual improvement is unique, however you could suggest the estimated cost and increased value for example of work by area e.g. per ft or m squared.

Examples - Building 1 (£150,000, 2 floor, 40m squared footprint) and Building 2 (£250,000, 3 floor, 30m squared footprint) both have an extension (1 floor, 20m squared footprint) at a cost of £500 per m squared - cost £10,000. Estimated increase in value 7% - Building 1 +£10,500, Building 2 +£17,500.

In the example above, the cost and the increase in value make the extension for Building 1 difficult to justify, just about breaking even, however the extension for Building 2 would yield a profit of £7,500 if Building 2 were sold shortly thereafter.

Are there any guideline figures on what to expect when asking for a quote in terms of charges. Asking for a quote, I would expect and require a breakdown of estimated costs including individual materials for each wall/door/window/roof/furnishing etc, an estimate of the time (in man/hours) to build the relevant section, and a schedule indicating the order and timing of sections, and the actual cost of the contractor in man/hours (excluding we hope time for fag breaks and other interruptions).

Is there any web sites or other sources of information that will go into significant detail on running a home improvement or a new build project from scratch?

Finally we must remember that Cost of making improvements will not necessarily fall in value as fast and as much as the value of properties will be, and that once an improvement is complete, the value of such an improvement will drop or rise with the value of the property potentially reducing the amount of money to be made from such work when the property is sold.

Thankyou

Several homes in my neighbourhood have brick or timber built 'home offices' at the end of the back garden. Do estate agents have any opinion on these?

Regarding extensions and other major improvements, I was considering an extension, but have been warned by 2 estate agents known to me that it is only really worth doing this if you plan to life in, and enjoy, the extension or conversion, for a period of time. It takes years to recoup costs, particularly in this market. So only do this if you plan to stay.

Regarding guide to costs: I would advise going to the Federation of Master Builders website. They have a forum where you can post queries.
A rough guide to costs is:

£1000 p sq m for a single storey extension (Shell ONLY), and around £1500 for a double (this is because the foundations are already lain).

Shell does not include heating, electrics, windows ... which can more than double the cost.

The federation also has a list of builders local to your area (post code reveals a list) and you can request that builders contact you. The federation do not recommend, however, so my advice is to interview the builder, find someone you can work with, and who is very happy to supply references. Don't go with anyone who was recommended from, for example, a kitchen showroom. Friends of mine did this, to their peril-

I'm only a novice .. but have learnt a lot. I guess you just have to be careful, and use your instincts.

So if all those things are done it adds £90,000 to the value of a house? Maybe if it's a £500,000
place. Having watched numerous "property programs" people can fit bathroom plus kitchen for 2-3 thousand and would rather improve than pay top dollar for what are the 2 most overpriced items when bought from specialists. But you guys at Fool are advising on loans!

All great ways of adding value to the house / property. An issue that came up a few years ago was the Average price in the area.
House A is in great shape, no add ons and goes for 99k
House B is in great shape, conseratory, drive , new garage and loads more besides and is worth 150 K it would not sell as the other houses were so much cheaper. The result was that all of the work done had priced it right out of the market, in that particular area. Who spends 50 K more than they have to.