Property Development Adding Value In A Cooling Market

Date Published:

05/06/2008

With each day bringing new headlines about a worsening market, and house prices teetering on the brink, developers like those in Property Ladder are having to think hard about how they'll make a profit. Is it bad news all round, or just time to get real?

By David Emerson, Series Producer of Property Ladder.

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The new series of Property Ladder got off to a flyer with over 3 million people tuning in to watch episode one's extension mad couples John and Patsy Parnell and Andy and Amanda Hodges try and supersize their way into major moolah. We asked the key question - does adding square footage always add value?

The answer in Andy and Amanda's case was a big fat yes. They quadrupled the size of their Bishop's Waltham property into a massive family home and look like they'll be walking away with at least £350k profit. Thats a major amount of money for a year's work, but (and excuse me if this sounds a little ungracious) I think they could have made up to half a million pounds with the right kind of exterior design.

Anyone who saw the show is bound to have an opinion on how their house ended up looking from the outside. I personally was never convinced by the rather institutional looking design, and ultimately feel it stopped Andy and Amanda making one of the biggest profits ever seen on Property Ladder.

Yes, adding bags of square footage should usually add value, but there's more to developing than slapping on a huge extension if you really want to squeeze every ounce of profit from a premium site.

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