Are extensions cost effective.

[Stretch]

I'm in the process of mulling over some fairly substantial alternation to my home, which is currently a 3 bed 1930s semi.

However, the build costs are much higher than I anticipated before I started my investigations. I've had several quotes for a loft conversion, which have all come in around the £55k mark. I have also been doing some rough calculations for a wrap around ground floor extension, using a crude £2k per sq meter, and the costs are fairly eye watering.

Many of the houses on my road are larger/more expensive than mine, and/or have been extended in some way. So it's not like there's a absolute ceiling price for the area.

But looking at the recent sold prices, I just don't really see how the works pays for itself or why anyone bothers with extensions?

Property is expensive in the are too. I was expecting the work to add more value than it cost.

 

[Armageus]

I just don't really see how the works pays for itself or why anyone bothers with extensions?

Surely most extensions aren't a case of paying for themselves. If everything else is right with a property e.g. things that are potentially more difficult to change like location, then fixing any niggles, e.g. by extending the kitchen, or adding an extra bedroom are "worth" more than just money.

 

[Stretch]

Surely most extensions aren't a case of paying for themselves. If everything else is right with a property e.g. things that are potentially more difficult to change like location, then fixing any niggles, e.g. by extending the kitchen, or adding an extra bedroom are "worth" more than just money.

This is true. But I'm looking for the most cost effective way to get a bigger house. I would have expected (maybe wrongly) that extending would be the cheaper option, but that doesn't look to be true.

What I find most baffling is property has gone up substantially (30%) in the last 2-3 years. I can't see any reason why build costs would have increased by the same amount, considering a significant portion of the price of the house is land value, which i already own.

Also, there are many other areas in the country where property prices are much lower than here. Extending make even less sense financially, but yet people still do it.

Why not just move?

 

[Street]

Why not just move?

We did exactly that. We looked into getting an extension on my old house as we needed a bit more space. It was a three bedroom semi and we had plenty of space down the side, but we wouldn't have seen a return on the cost of the work if we'd sold the house. It would have just been dead money. It was more cost effective for us to move a couple roads away to a much bigger house!

 

[eviled]

55k for a loft conversion?! That seems extremely expensive

You seem a little contradictory in that you say there's no ceiling price for your road but then say extensions aren't worth it.

Extensions are all about what you want them for, be it utility, space, adding value ect.

Also bear in mind you get exactly what you want with an extension, if you love there's redecorating and other costs you might not have thought of.

Have you involved anyone professional yet??
I found that an architect/architect assistant/good builder can show you some very good ways of cutting build costs down substantially

 

[Stretch]

55k for a loft conversion?! That seems extremely expensive

It seems expensive to me too, but that's apparently the going rate in these parts. That's inclusive of VAT, and it's quite a major conversion. Hip to gable, full rear dormer, en suite, small study, roof replacement, soffits, facias, tea, copies of the sun etc. It still seems very expensive.

You seem a little contradictory in that you say there's no ceiling price for your road but then say extensions aren't worth it.

What I mean is, I'm not planning to extend the house into something which is unfitting for the area, but the build costs still seem prohibitive when compared to value added. The value added would be significant, but not enough to justify the cost.

I would have though that if extending makes financial sense anywhere, here would be a good candidate.

Have you involved anyone professional yet??
I found that an architect/architect assistant/good builder can show you some very good ways of cutting build costs down substantially

I've paid for architect drawings for the loft. The architect said it would be about £50k

TBH, the loft conversion isn't the most painful part. I'm considering an extension to the rear on the ground floor. My neighbour has a similar one already he built himself. It's roughly 10m by 7m which is 70m2. At £1.5-2k per m2 that's £105-140k + VAT is £126-148k, then their's professional fees etc on top. Crazy money imo. Maybe my calculations aren't realistic.

We did exactly that. We looked into getting an extension on my old house as we needed a bit more space. It was a three bedroom semi and we had plenty of space down the side, but we wouldn't have seen a return on the cost of the work if we'd sold the house. It would have just been dead money. It was more cost effective for us to move a couple roads away to a much bigger house!

This is the way I'm leaning too. Especially when you consider the disruption and stress of builders on-site. It's difficult to understand why anyone builds houses. No wonder there's a housing crisis.

 

[Regy53]

I had a full dorma loft conversion done last year, with en suite not a million miles from you cost me £35 ish k all in.

It was quite a job and gave us a very nice room but i suppose it depends how big your house is anyhow.

However

I paid 215k for my house in June 2015.
I spent about 10 / 12k on it in a small renovation
I then spent about 35k on the loft.

Valued before Christmas at £315k

Safe to say my £35k was well invested in my opinion, without the loft its about 260k. I mean its not like i have doubled my money, but to be able to get use out of it, and keep the money in the house is ideal.

 

[Buffman]

Do you have a good idea of house prices in the area and what value the extension will add?

Generally (central) Cambridge is almost London esque and I imagine it could be quite lucrative!

 

[Stretch]

I had a full dorma loft conversion done last year, with en suite not a million miles from you cost me £35 ish k all in.

It was quite a job and gave us a very nice room but i suppose it depends how big your house is anyhow.

However

I paid 215k for my house in June 2015.
I spent about 10 / 12k on it in a small renovation
I then spent about 35k on the loft.

Valued before Christmas at £315k

Safe to say my £35k was well invested in my opinion, without the loft its about 260k. I mean its not like i have doubled my money, but to be able to get use out of it, and keep the money in the house is ideal.

What sort of house do you live in? Terrace, detached, semi? My house is a fairly typical 3 bed semi.

Did you go for a full false roof? Apparently that can add quite a bit to the cost depending on who you talk to.
What else did it include, at what sort of company did the work. Local building, loft conversion specialist, building contractor?

Obviously £35k is much cheaper. I did get a quote for £33 ex VAT. But it was so much cheaper than the rest, I viewed it as slightly suspect.

Do you have a good idea of house prices in the area and what value the extension will add?

Generally (central) Cambridge is almost London esque and I imagine it could be quite lucrative!

House prices are high. I would expect the loft conversion to add £50-60k, maybe £70 at a push, which wipes its feet. I would not expect a single store ground floor rear extension to add more than £100k

 

[Regy53]

What sort of house do you live in? Terrace, detached, semi? My house is a fairly typical 3 bed semi. Did you go for a full false roof? Apparently that can add quite a bit to the cost depending on who you talk to.



House prices are high. I would expect the loft conversion to add £50-60k, maybe £70 at a push, which wipes it's feet just. I would not expect a single store ground floor rear extension to add more than £100k

We are end terrace typical 3 bed end terrace .

what do you mean full false roof? probably not as i have not a clue lol....

 

[Chojin]

Did the builder just give you the £55k quote or break it down any further? Perhaps it would be worth getting quotations by separate tradesmen rather than a single builder for comparison?

With your rear extension surely economy of scale come into play for such a large area. If they are excavating with a digger that seems like a very easy £2k per square metre.

 

[edscdk]

If you extend to sell its possibly not worth it, if you extend because you want to then it's worth it...

 

[Hedge]

This is something I'm considering for our 3 bed Semi. We want to extend the back of our house with a single story extension. It seems like £1500 per square meter is the going rate. Costs certainly get high fast!.

https://www.realhomesmagazine.co.uk/advice/10-ways-to-cut-the-cost-of-your-extension/

I was just reading this which might help keep costs down.

 

[Maccapacca]

The cost of moving is huge.

If we spent another 200k on a house we might get another bedroom and some more outside space but that's about all. For a sdlt bill of a 30k, 700 a month in additional mortgage larger council tax bill etc etc

Makes a 50k extension sound cheap.

And yes 2000 a sqm is about right . 1500 would be a flat roof box and 2500 would be a high quality build.

 

[Hedge]

I think we are going to consider an Orangery for our extension because I think it's maybe cheaper and would look nice with our garden.

 

[the_r_sole]

How are arriving at the final valuation?
Most people extend to make the house work the way they want it to to suit their lifestyle at the time. Extending purely to increase the value of a property is questionable.
2k per m2 is a realistic figure, but do you really need 70m2?! That's a huge extension, I've done whole houses with a smaller footprint!
If I was you I would look at the house as existing, see what you can do to make it work better, then add an extension if needed or if it will make it work better,
90% of clients that have come to me looking for extensions hadn't even considered knocking the hell out their existing house!

 

[Regy53]

sorry to add i used a loft conversion company, they did everything for me, the whole lot from planning / building control, all the electrics etc i had to supply white goods and tiles.

We had one gang (of two) here for about 4-5 weeks. They did use a different company for plumbing and tiling.

 

[chroniclard]

We extended because we like our house, we like the area and wanted to get a new kitchen/expand our living space. Value for money or making money wasn't a consideration.

 

[Stretch]

We are end terrace typical 3 bed end terrace .

what do you mean full false roof? probably not as i have not a clue lol....

Sorry, I meant temporary roof. It's a large scaffold which encompass the entire top floor whilst it's exposed to the elements. Some builders suggested that they could get away without one, and most said it would add £5k to the price. However, £55k guy said it wasn't that expensive, and it would make the job quicker as they didn't need to mess about with tarp and could work in the rain.

Did the builder just give you the £55k quote or break it down any further? Perhaps it would be worth getting quotations by separate tradesmen rather than a single builder for comparison?

He didn't give a breakdown of cost, but there was an itemised breakdown of what work would be completed. There's not much in the quote that I could go without.

I know other people who have gone down the self managed, separate tradesman route and it's normally ended badly and/or has been extremely stressful.

Personally, I've not been terribly lucky with tradesman in the past. I don't really want to take a risk on such an expensive project.

With your rear extension surely economy of scale come into play for such a large area. If they are excavating with a digger that seems like a very easy £2k per square metre.

You would think that economy of scale would apply. I was hoping someone with experience might be able to shed some light?

 

[Stretch]

How are arriving at the final valuation?
Most people extend to make the house work the way they want it to to suit their lifestyle at the time. Extending purely to increase the value of a property is questionable.
2k per m2 is a realistic figure, but do you really need 70m2?! That's a huge extension, I've done whole houses with a smaller footprint!
If I was you I would look at the house as existing, see what you can do to make it work better, then add an extension if needed or if it will make it work better,
90% of clients that have come to me looking for extensions hadn't even considered knocking the hell out their existing house!

Can I ask what you do for work?

I'm just slightly confused by the apparent correlation between the cost of building and the value it adds to property in any given area.

There's huge disparity in property value in this country, and we've had 10%+ yoy house price inflation for a number of years now in this area. Given these factors, how is it possible that build cost still roughly equate to value added? Build costs cannot have increase that much in a similar timeframe.

I bought my whole house in 2009 for a price that is not too dissimilar to the price (albeit guesstimate) of the extension and loft conversion I'm considering. While the extension would be nice, it's not a house.

Also, if you travel only 20-30 miles outside cambridge, property is half the price, yet people still extend. Only a complete half whit would pay the money I've been quote to extent a house in these circumstances.

Something just doesn't add up. The few explanations I can think of is the building industry is exceptionally uncompetitive, and builders charge what they think it's worth to the customer at resale value, and it bears little or no relation to the cost of build. The other factor could be VAT, since you pay VAT on home improvements, but not on new builds or house purchases. However, even taking VAT out of the equation, it's still pretty marginal.

The £55k quote for my loft wasn't the highest by a long shot. One company wanted £63k. I did raise the point with him that it's not economical at that price, and he didn't really have an answer.