Once you’ve spent years saving for a deposit and keeping your credit score high, you can finally purchase your first home, it’s an exciting time, leaving the life of a renter behind and adapting to your new life as a homeowner has a lot of challenges.
As a renter, you’ve likely not had to worry about performing household maintenance, redecorating or upgrading where you live for quite some time, as it was your landlord’s responsibility. But as a homeowner who will have spent a lot of money on your property, you’ll want to protect your investment by keeping your home in good condition.
Beyond just maintaining your investment in your home to keep it’s value stable, you should also be looking at projects you can undertake in your home to raise the value of your property. Upgrading your home, making it more modern, stylish and practical can increase the value of your home, so investing in your property can be one of the most stable investments you can make and also will give you more mobility when you next decide to move houses.
So to help you with the task of investing in your home, here are some projects you can undertake to help push up the value of your home.
Project 1: Convert Your Attic Into An Extra Room
A simple principle for houses is that the more rooms you have, the more valuable your home is, so a loft conversion is a perfect project to add value to your home, by converting your empty attic into an extra bedroom, an office or even an extra lounge for your home. This will provide great utility for you as a homeowner, having an extra room for you to use as you see fit.
This all sounds simple off the bat, but converting your attic can involve a lot of work and will cost on average between £21,000 – £44,000 depending on the size of your attic, while this may sound like a lot, a recent study showed a loft conversion can increase the value of your home by 20% (For a £200,000 house, value would increase to £240,000), so the increase in value will effectively pay off the cost of the conversion when it’s time to sell.
Project 2: Connect Your Home To Your Garden With Bi-Fold Doors
This project centers more on style than it does in practicality, having a large glass door connecting your home to your garden is a great move aesthetically, as you’ll have views of the outside, great natural light and create a good flow in and out of your home. The best way to go about this is with Bi-Fold doors, which are more practical, safe and better looking than most traditional glass doors (Just be cautious that unlike traditional doors, that you can shade as you see fit, with Bi-Fold doors, you’ll need specialist bi-fold door blinds).
The average cost of installing Bi-Fold doors to your home is about £1,000-£8,000 depending on the size of the door and what door panels you choose; in terms of work these are relatively quick and easy to install so installation won’t disrupt your life too much. In terms of value that these doors add, according to Discover Air having Bi-Fold doors can add 5-10% to the sale value of your home (For a £200,000 house, value would increase to £210,000-£220,000), meaning the value they add will more than cover the cost of installation.
Project 3: Add More Living Space With A Conservatory
Conservatories are great home investments, most people love the idea of owning a conservatory and can be a major selling point for when you decide to move homes. You’ll create a beautiful and serene living space in your home linking to the garden, which will be great for relaxing as a homeowner.
Like the loft conversion, this project may take a while to be completed, so factor in some disruption to your life for a week or so, but the cost for a conservatory can be around £5,750-£7,600 for a new ‘Lean-To’ conservatory, but having a conservatory can increase the value of your home by 10% (For a £200,000 house, value would increase to £220,000), so again, the increase in your homes value, will cover the costs incurred in building your conservatory.
Project 4: Install Solar Panels On Your Roof
With a push towards renewable energy and decreasing reliance on fossil fuels, solar panels are becoming a popular feature that lots of buyers look for when purchasing a home. Not only are they attractive to people concerned about the environment, they can also cut your household bills as you’ll be able to use the energy generated by them and not need as much from your energy supplier, so they’re also a great choice for the savvy minded homeowner.
Installing solar panels is usually a quick and easy project and won’t disrupt your day to day life whilst they’re being installed. The cost of kitting out a home with solar panels will be about £5,940 on average for a medium sized property. This report from the UK Government shows that solar panels will increase your homes value by 14% in average (For a £200,000 house, value would increase to £228,000) which will cover the cost of installation and that’s before considering that the savings on your utility bills from having solar panels could pay for the installation in a matter of years.
