Home cinemas, loft conversions, and solar panels are among the home improvements that reduce the sale income potential of a property by as much as £12,300, according to property maintenance company Help me Fix.
Sellers should instead invest in a garage conversion, build a garden office or create open plan living if they want to boost the sale price.
Removing the bath and replacing it with a standalone shower in the family bathroom costs £2,765. However, it’s thought to actually reduce the value of a home by -2% resulting in a sale income reduction of -£8,683.
However a garage conversion can increase sale profit by £15,840; building a garden office boosts profit by £12,693; and creating open plan living will put an extra £9,762 in the seller’s pocket.
Ettan Bazil, chief executive and founder of Help me Fix, said: “There is an assumption that major home improvements are always a good investment due to the fact that they add to a property’s market value.
“But what a lot of people don’t do is account for the initial cost of completing the improvement and measure it against the value added to the home. If the former outweighs the latter, your home will certainly sell for more, but your personal profit will still be reduced.
“We would advise homeowners to take their time and conduct thorough research before committing to any major improvements to ensure that they’re going to be better off at the end of the day.
“You might find that smaller, more basic improvements such as a new boiler, fixed roof, or double-glazing installation will actually prove to be better long-term investments as well as putting less immediate strain on your finances.”
Home cinemas cost around £15,000 to install but only increase a home’s value by 0.9%, amounting to £2,663 based on the average property price.
Loft conversions are wildly popular, especially in densely populated, urban areas, but their huge expense (£37,500) means that even a 10.8% value add to the property price can’t stop a resulting -£5,542 decline in sale profit.
Solar panels are an oft-discussed home improvement which, if you’re in the property for a very long time, can result in decent energy price savings. However, in the short-term, they add little to a property’s value (0.5%) and thus result in a -£4,395 reduction in sale profit.
