Maximising Your Home's Value How To Add Value To Your House

Date Published:

25/06/2008

Don't let a dingy exterior undo all your good work inside. Making the outside pleasant also increases the amount of living space you can offer potential buyers- and a good-looking front garden will also help draw buyers in.

In Front

First impressions count, so keep the garden and the front of the house smart. Low maintenance plants and hard landscaping are great, because lugging the watering can from the back garden is a real drag and chances are you won't bother.

Credit: Clive Nicholls/GPL

Small feature plants are inexpensive- choose slow growing shrubs such as box (which need less trimming) or elegant grasses. Gravel is also a great surface for front gardens and, at just a few pounds a bag, it won't break the bank. Gravel is also a good security measure, as you can easily hear approaching footsteps.

Don't forget, too, to take a long, hard look at your front door and door furniture. A door, smartly painted in a trendy colour (purple is out, French grey is in) and furnished with stylish letters and a letterbox (brass is out, steel is in) will all help when it comes to selling your property.

Out Back

Be guided by where you live. Low-maintenance is great for time-poor professionals, but families will find a patch of grass to play on much more appealing. If you do want hard surfacing, brick or stone slabs are better than gravel as they can be hosed clean.

Sumptuous borders look stunning, but prospective buyers may be put off by the expert knowledge needed to maintain them, and you need to know what you're doing in the first place. Containers are more versatile as they can be moved around when the plants get taller, and repotted once they are past their best.

Pick up an inexpensive but stylish outdoor seating set to encourage dreams of alfresco dining. An organic vegetable patch may be too much of a commitment, but try at least to include a small patch for herbs to nod at the possibility.

Borders

Take a hard look at the edges to your property- they don't just mark out what land is yours. Use them to frame nice views, obscure ugly ones and to play visually with the size of the garden. A hedge will also muffle noise from a road or neighbours, or act as a windbreak if you live in an exposed spot. Compare the cost of fencing, which can be more than £1,000, with a living hedge, which while cheaper, will take months, if not years to mature.

Make Your Hallway Show Stopping

While we're on first impressions remember your hallway, after all whether it's you, your visitors or potential buyers coming through the front door, it's inevitably the first thing they will see. The general rule is to keep colours light, bright and airy and to use plenty of glass and mirrors to make the most of what is usually a dark, narrow space.

For instance, modern, and some period homes, look great with glass banisters or tension-wire in place of wood. Don't forget the space under the stairs, too. An under stairs loo (or wet room if you have space) is practical and scores points with buyers, while opening out the space for clever storage or a sneaky office area can add a real wow factor.

Essentials

Just as a toilet inside the house was on everyone's wish list 50 years ago, there are now whole new raft of must-haves for the 21st century home. This is the kind of extra that, if you can squeeze it in, may seal the deal with a prospective buyer.

The Home Office

Essential if you work from home, it's also great to have a designated area to do the bills and internet surfing. Turning a small box bedroom into a home office is the perfect solution- it does the job without needing any structural changes, and can be switched back into a bedroom as fast as you can change the furniture.

Avoid furniture that sits on the floor in favour of shelves so you can include that home office staple, the sofa bed, in case of guests. Spacious hallways and under-stairs spaces are also candidates.

The Utility Room

Relocating the laundry equipment from the kitchen into another area frees up space and removes washing and ironing from the kitchen, but where to put it? Extending the kitchen is the perfect opportunity to factor in a utility area, but you could also incorporate one in the rear part of the garage. A spacious downstairs loo is also a candidate- stacking the tumble dryer on top of the washing machine will save space and, as there is a toilet there, it means all the pipework is in place. A cellar is also a prime spot. As clothes are kept in wardrobes, an upstairs utility will avoid running up and down with laundry, but only if you rely on a drying rack or the tumble dryer and don't intend to use a line in the garden.

The Dressing Room

This one is good for creating true luxury. If you have a large bedroom, an ideal solution is to build a false wall with the bed in front and wardrobes behind. You could also nibble space from two bedrooms- remove the wall that adjoins the two and replace with two walls. Half of the space becomes the walk-in wardrobe for one room, and the rest for the other.

Older houses that have been extended over the generations sometimes have small bedrooms that are only accessed via another bedroom. Clearly this isn't ideal, so better use of the space may be as a dressing room. And, of course, if you are starting from scratch, a loft conversion has the potential of becoming a luxurious bedroom with an en suite and a dressing room.

Paul Slater, group technical director at David Wilson Homes adds: "Consumers are increasingly demanding separate dressing rooms or walk-in wardrobes, which are featuring high on homeowners' wish lists. At least 50 per cent of our homes with five bedrooms or more are designed with a separate dressing room."

Flooring: What To Put Where

Flooring has the biggest single impact on the house as a whole. What to use where is common sense- hard flooring in the kitchen and bathroom (carpet surrounding a toilet is a big no-no), a bit of comfort and luxury underfoot in the bedroom, and something practical in high-traffic areas such as hallways and living rooms. Always get the best you can afford as it really will show in terms of durability. When using tiles, try to find a bit in the budget for underfloor heating- it's a feature that buyers love.

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