The easy 6 home renovations to boost your house price this summer -including £260 loft trick to add £17k

LOOKING to sell your home? You’ll need to work harder to get the price you want for it unfortunately, after house prices fell recently during a shock summer slump. But it turns out you can still beat the buyers’ market by making small, affordable home renovations – and you could even add up to £113,000 to your property value with one simple trick. With a little time and effort, you can DIY some of these renovations and save a fortune Credit: Alamy It’s important to maximise your home’s selling potential now more than ever, as the average asking price for a home in June fell slightly to £378,000 according to Rightmove, with the heatwave and the Iran war partly to blame. So if you’re wanting to move soon, consider these top home renovations which cost under £1,000 and DON’T require planning permission, with one that could add a whopping £75k onto the asking price. The reason you might want to avoid needing planning permission is it can take around eight weeks to go through, and applications cost households £528. You’ll need it for projects like building extensions, outhouses and loft conversions. But not every renovation that can boost your home’s value needs it. From Juliet balconies to even adding an extra room, you can do it on a shoestring budget WITHOUT the planning application headache. Jamie Williams, specialist property expert at Pure Property Finance, said: “Sellers likely don’t need to undertake a large renovation to make their home stand out in this market. “Instead, they need to address smaller issues that speak to a buyer’s psychological perception. Doing this turns their property from a project or fixer-upper into more of the finished article.” We boosted our home’s value by £200k using wood from SKIPS, abandoned sinks and a secondhand kitchen that cost just £5 A SAVVY mum reveals how she boosted her dilapidated Victorian home’s value by a whopping £200k with pre-loved furniture, salvaged wood and scraps she found on the street. Louise Horton, 36, from Banbury, Oxfordshire, and her DIY-enthusiast husband Peter scoured skips, building sites and secondhand websites for cut-price fittings to create a high-end look for a fraction of the real cost. Louise bought their two-bed Victorian terrace two-bed in 2018 for £240,000, undaunted by the fact that it needed to be completely re-done from top to bottom. “The house needed a complete renovation. It was dark and dingy, there was a dead mouse on the living room floor. “The carpets were awful, there was peeling laminate and terrible tiles. We ended up touching every single inch of the house.” Her husband Peter, 39, is a construction manager for historic buildings so was able to tackle a range of building and DIY challenges. The pair – parents to Nye, five, and Elis, two – converted the two-bedroom home into a three-bed by converting the bathroom into a bedroom, and then dividing another bedroom into a smaller room and a family bathroom. Their greatest saving was in the kitchen, where Louise transformed it into the heritage-style room of her dreams for just £3,500. “If we went to a kitchen company or used a standard supplier, getting the traditional look I wanted with solid wood, ceiling-height cabinetry, coving and that built-in feel, would cost around £30,000. That simply wasn’t going to happen. “I searched everywhere, and eventually I found our kitchen units on Facebook Marketplace for £50. That included the carcasses, the doors and drawers. “The seller even threw in the oven, which has become one of my favourite things in the house “We got the sink free from a neighbour who was throwing it away. Even the patio doors came from Facebook Marketplace. They were brand new, but a local couple had ordered the wrong size and needed to get rid of them, so we saved around £800 just on those.” These are the low-cost home renovations you won’t need planning permission for… Boarding your loft Costs: £260 upwards Adds: up to £17,000 Boarding your loft can encourage buyers to make higher offers and you can do it yourself Credit: Getty You could create more storage space in your home and make it more attractive to buyers by boarding your loft. This essentially means installing a safe and usable floor. A recent survey of estate agents by loft storage experts LoftZone found that boarding your loft is the most overlooked way to add value to your home. Peter Thum-Bonanno, co-founder of estate agent comparison platform GetAgent, said: “Storage space is one of the most requested features by buyers. “A boarded loft, lit and accessible via a proper ladder, signals that the home has been loved and cared for, giving buyers the confidence to make higher offers.” Getting your loft boarded professionally could cost between £1,000 to £3,600, according to Checkatrade. But LoftZone said doing it yourself can cost as little as £260 and take just one weekend – so it’s easy to do. You’ll need to be reasonably fit and comfortable using a power drill, but you can buy the flooring from your local DIY store and install it yourself. It’s a safe DIY project to do yourself but you should always consult experts where needed, and carry out a few checks. Make sure your ceiling joists are sturdy enough to hold the weight, and electrical cables aren’t trapped or crushed beneath the new floor. Rather than screwing boards directly onto the floor joists, you should install raised loft legs or stilts over them so you don’t run the risk of damp. Boarding your loft and making it accessible can add around £17,000 in value to a four-bedroom family home, LoftZone says. Adding a Juliet balcony Costs: £550 Adds: not an established amount, but a normal balcony adds up to 10% A Juliet balcony adds to a home’s general appeal and is cheaper than a standard balcony Credit: Getty Balconies are sought-after by buyers as they can make a space feel brighter and more open. However they cost an average of £3,000 to install, making them a little pricey. If you want a cheaper option, you can install a Juliet balcony for an average of just £550. This includes the balcony itself and the installation. Juliet balconies, also known as false balconies, have a narrow metal balustrade and usually no floor. They create the appearance of a balcony and you can install French doors to improve the ventilation of your home. Just be aware that if you add a floor, you will have to apply for planning permission. Victoria Robinson, trend and product expert at Hillarys, says a Juliet balcony can make a bedroom or upper-floor living space feel “brighter, more open and connected to the outdoors”. “Buyers tend to respond well to features that make a home feel more aspirational, and a Juliet balcony can create that effect without requiring the space needed for a full balcony,” she said. Although it’s unlikely to add a fixed amount to the value of your home on its own, it can enhance the overall appeal of a property. But Checkatrade estimates a normal balcony would add between 5-10% of the value to your home. Adding a bath Costs: £200 upwards Adds: from £7,500 Putting a bath in increases your home’s appeal to a wider range of potential buyers Credit: Getty You’d be surprised by how much adding a bath can increase your property’s value. Research by Sanctuary Bathrooms recently found almost one in four people would reconsider putting an offer on a property if it had no bath. Robin Edwards, buying agent at property finders Curetons, said: “A shower-only property narrows the buyer pool, particularly for families with children or older buyers who prefer baths. “From a valuation perspective, it could reduce value by around 2-5%. Buyers may push slightly harder on offers if they already anticipate replacing the bathroom.” That means on a £378,000 home, you could add at least £7,500 onto your property’s value, or up to £18,900 if you’re lucky, depending on the tub you choose. The amount you’d need to spend on a bath depends on what you’re going for. The cheapest baths you can get are acrylic, which cost £200 to £250, or steel ones for between £250 to £400. You would pay around £300 to get it fitted, meaning you’d still be spending well under £1,000 in total. Restoring a vintage fireplace Costs: £500 upwards Adds: £113k, potentially You can save on restoring a vintage fireplace by doing the finishing touches yourself Credit: Getty Period features and vintage charm are all the rage amongst buyers. If you’re fortunate enough to own a home that’s over 100 years old, you could increase your property value by up to 30% by restoring some of its original period features. On a home worth £378,000, that could mean increasing your value by a huge £113,400. Emma Grant, director of trade engagement at Checkatrade, says one of the most cost-effective ways you can do this is restoring your fireplace. The cost can range from about £500 to £1,500. The amount you need to spend varies on the condition of the fireplace, but if it needs replacing, it costs £300 to knock out the current one, £325 for a new flue liner (which acts like an exhaust pipe to carry smoke and heat out of your home) and £275 for a replacement hearth. “One way to save on costs for this is by doing the finishing touches – painting and tiling – yourself,” she says. Raising your garden patio Costs: £500 upwards Adds: from £18,900 An attractive garden patio space will tempt buyers and make your home feel more luxurious Credit: Getty Improving your outdoor space doesn’t have to involve getting planning permission. Luke Buckland, director of Buckland Building contractors, recommends refreshing your patio by adding raised planters and creating a defined seating area. You can build permanent raised beds out of timber sleepers or construct a built-in wooden seating zone to do this. Mr Buckland estimates this would only cost between £500 to £1,000, and you could do it yourself. But it could have a big impact on the value of your home. “Outdoor space remains a major selling point for UK buyers, particularly since homeworking became more common, and a well-presented garden can add several thousand pounds in perceived value when it comes to selling,” he says. Property experts Roger Coupe estimate a well-presented garden adds between 5% to 15% to the perceived value of a home. On a £378,000 home, that could add at least £18,900 onto your property’s value. Adding a room Costs: £800 upwards Adds: from £22,000 You’d be surprised how little it can cost to add an extra room to your property Credit: Getty Adding an extra room to your property can be attractive for buyers. For example, you could create a home office space, an en suite or an extra bedroom. Checkatrade’s Emma Grant says: “It might sound like a big job, but it can be relatively straightforward, and budget friendly, to add a partition stud wall and therefore create a new room.” Research by Nationwide has found adding a second bathroom can add 6% to the value of the average house. Meanwhile studies suggest adding a double bedroom can increase your home’s value by 10 to 15%. On the average house price of £378,000, that could mean an uplift of at least £22,000. If you’re putting in a timber wall partition, this would cost between £800 to £900. This includes the cost of getting a professional to do it for you, which is recommended if your plans include electricals, plumbing or plastering. Of course, kitting out your new room could cost more, depending on what your plans are.