How to Add Value to Your Home If You’re Looking to Sell

Could now be an especially promising time for you to offload a house? The statistics suggest so. Back in March 2020, the intensifying COVID-19 crisis sent UK house sales plummeting, as the first lockdown made property viewings online-only, and sellers removed their homes from the market.

This situation, three months later, led the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, to slash stamp duty on homes worth under £500,000. The UK property market has since flourished amid suggestions that the stamp duty holiday, which is now winding down, was largely unnecessary.

According to the mortgage lender Nationwide, August 2021 saw annual house price increases in the UK reach their second-largest monthly rise in 15 years. This was despite the property-price threshold, above which stamp duty would become payable, falling to £250,000 a month prior.

Indeed, upon analysing the Government’s actions, the Resolution Foundation think tank recently argued that ultra-low interest rates, furloughed employees’ pent-up savings and increased demand for more spacious properties were enough to spark home-buying activity.

Though the stamp-duty threshold is set to be restored to its former level of £125,000 come October 2021, there remains good reason to believe that the “seller’s market” will remain buoyant even beyond this cut-off point. This is largely because many first-time buyers could soon re-enter the market.

One unintended consequence of the stamp duty holiday was increasing home-buying costs prohibitively for people attempting to ascend the first rung of the property ladder. As a result, many first-time buyers have stepped back from it. However, with the stamp duty discount now about to end, 40% of first-time buyers intend to purchase their new home in the next 3-6 months.

So, it’s arguably not too late for you, as a seller, to capitalise on the pandemic-fuelled property market boom. However, as its future trajectory remains uncertain, you would be well-advised not to wait longer than necessary before putting your own home on the market.

If the home you want to sell is in Chester, Manchester, North Wales or any of the surrounding areas, we can help you to maximise your property’s sale price. To get started, just book a free valuation – an honest, fair and accurate one at that – from Jordan & Halstead.

In valuing your home, our local property experts will take into account various factors – and not just such obvious factors as the home’s square footage and number of bedrooms. We will also consider, for example, your home’s location and decor as well as any outdoor space attached to the building.

While you obviously wouldn’t be able to change your home’s location and its proximity to schools and transport links, we will identify and advise on various measures you could take to enhance the home itself and, with it, its value on the property market. Here are some examples of improvements we might suggest…

How To Add Value To Your Home

Unfortunately, many estate agents could too readily recommend big-budget home improvements without putting enough thought into how cost-effective these moves would be. After all, you would be expending not only money but also time and effort on making them.

Hence, we always resist advocating particularly ambitious projects – like renovations or conversions – unless we are convinced it would unlock a genuinely good return on investment. You could find that minor, cosmetic improvements actually fetch you the best value in your particular case.

You should remember that many prospective buyers will drive or walk past a “for-sale” home before booking a viewing of it. Therefore, even something as simple as a fresh lick of paint on the windows or the installation of a new front door could be enough to tempt many people into booking viewings.

This situation is why you should also pay close attention to any garden space areas of your home. Eric Robson OBE, who served as Principal Chairman of Gardeners’ Question Time on BBC Radio 4, claims that the importance of outdoor space has been underlined during the pandemic.

He explains in words quoted by the Express: “We’ve seen this put into sharp focus by the pandemic and the lockdowns, that here is a bit of precious space for people who, if they didn’t have a garden, would be hemmed in.” A garden is an especially easy part of the home to improve, too.

You could, for example, divide your garden into zones by adding flower beds, hedges and paths, while outdoor furniture can make an especially thoughtful addition. Before September is out, you could also plant bulbs so that they would be able to bloom the following spring.

Anything that extends the usable floor space of your home can increase its value, too. Therefore, an extension – if it would be within your budget – can make a lot of sense; consider how adding, say, a side-return extension to your kitchen can potentially boost the property’s value by 15%.

However, for you specifically, it could prove a more worthwhile investment to convert existing space rather than build entirely new space. Indoor space potentially ripe for conversion includes lofts, basements and garages – and some rooms could even be combined as one open-plan space.

Meanwhile, if you have a particularly old home with period features like cornicing, ceiling roses and working fireplaces, restoring these original features could improve your home’s worth by almost 7.5% – and, on your part, wouldn’t require a significant amount of work.

Something else that, for you, could require even less work is simply obtaining planning permission to improve your home. Even if you don’t undertake that improvement work yourself, going through the planning process can save a future owner of your home having to do so. As a result, just having that planning permission in place could grow your home’s market value by a tenth.