Renting out your properties and earning a good, regular income is usually the first priority of property investors. But if there comes a time when you want to sell one or more properties – perhaps in order to use the money to invest in something bigger and better – it’s useful to know what can help add value to your bricks and mortar investment.
A recent survey involving over 200 leading estate agents in the UK, carried out by movewithus, analysed the best ways of adding value to a property. They identified the most profitable additions that could be made and looked at how much value could be added, based on average price values.
The number one most profitable addition was found to be adding an extra bedroom, which could increase the value of a property by over £14,500. A loft conversion adds over £11,000 and an extra bathroom can add on just over £10,000.
If you’re prepared to put a bit of work and money into your property before you sell, you could end up with a higher sale price than you bargained for. Many of the improvements, such as a loft conversion, extra bedroom and extra bathroom, could also add a significant chunk of extra rental income to your property too, if you think about improving it early on.
Here’s the top 10 most valuable additions you can add to a property.
The first percentage figure relates to the typical average value added and the second monetary figure relates to the added value based on the Land Registry’s average house price (of £165,596).
1. Extra bedroom, 8.8% – £14,572
2. Loft conversion, 7.1% – £11,757
3. Extra bathroom, 6.1% – £10,101
4. New kitchen, 5.8% – £9,605
5. Central heating, 5.4% – £8,942
6. Off street parking, 5.2% – £8,611
7. New bathroom, 5.1% – £8,445
8. Conservatory, 5% – £8,280
9. Double glazing, 4.2% – £6,955
10. New conservative decoration, 3.7% – £6,127