Planning rules on extensions to be relaxed 'to boost economy

[indus]

To be honest I don't see the point in extending. Once you've spent the money, you may as well have moved as its not always necessarily cheaper to extend. You'll never get your money back if you wanted to sell either as it'll be the same house just a bit bigger in the same location.

Sorry my friend but that is nonsense on so many levels. If your house is in a desirable area and you extend sensibly you will not only get the money back but you will add value.

It all depends on what sort of house in what sort of area you are talking about. If are talking about spending £30k on a £75k terraced house in the North then you might well be right.

However you could easily spend £250k on some houses and add loads of extra value.

In my own case I love my location, I don't want to live anywhere else except the very street I'm on. I just want a bigger house and so will (and have) extend.

No need to be sorry at all.

So, tell me, how much for a typical double extension?

It's all in they eyes of the beholder. Ask anyone trying to sell a house they've spent 50k plus on. They will NOT get their money back.

Only extend if you no longer wish to move or don't wish to ever recover that money back.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'the eye of the beholder', we are not talking about subjective opinions on aesthetics here we are talking hard cash and values.

And I don't need to ask anybody else who's trying to sell a house, I have done it in the past myself. I've bought, extended and sold for an increase that is in excess of the cost of building works and more than just house price inflation.

As I said the extensions need to be sensibly thought out and take into account the land prices in that area. I'm not sure why you find this a difficult concept, if it weren't true property developers wouldn't exist.

Here is a basic example.

You live on Snodsville St where a 3 bed house sells for £500k but a 5 bed house sells for £750k because large family homes are in demand. It's a nice area with good schools, good transport links and low crime.

You own a 3 bed house but have a bit of extra land on the side and back. You manage to add two bedrooms and bung on a nice kitchen extension at the back to open up the ground floor.

It's cost you £150k, your house is now worth £750k or close to.

As I said these things need to be done with respect to the desirability of the area

 

[Rob_Quads]

To be honest I don't see the point in extending. Once you've spent the money, you may as well have moved as its not always necessarily cheaper to extend. You'll never get your money back if you wanted to sell either as it'll be the same house just a bit bigger in the same location.

Extending can sometimes be a great move. My brother decided to spend 100k extending his house(really only 80k but spent 20k on very high spec interior due to it being thier final home) . The alternative was to move to a similar sized house but it was a newer brick built not stone clad like his.
The funny bit is the people he bought the house off moved across the street to a bigger house and spent £130k (5 years ago) moving but now has a smaller house with lower spec interior that my brother on the same sized plot of land.

Its already been valued at 50k more than he spent! so even worst case I am sure would break event

I don't think the change will make that much difference. If your planning a 8m deep extension the cost of getting plans done will be a minor cost of the build I would have thought. OK it might speed things up but I would not have expected it to be a huge barrier

 

[geraldthehamster]

[quote="SaladFingers";p="2507494
Here is a basic example.

You live on Snodsville St where a 3 bed house sells for £500k but a 5 bed house sells for £750k because large family homes are in demand. It's a nice area with good schools, good transport links and low crime.

You own a 3 bed house but have a bit of extra land on the side and back. You manage to add two bedrooms and bung on a nice kitchen extension at the back to open up the ground floor.

It's cost you £150k, your house is now worth £750k or close to.

As I said these things need to be done with respect to the desirability of the area

We added a fourth bedroom to a 3 bed house that was struggling to be worth more than 250k because of the stamp duty threshhold. Adding a fourth bedroom took it comfortably over that threshold, and as its value wasn't held down by being anywhere near the next threshhold up, we added twice the cost of the works to the value. As proved when we sold it shortly after.

The other chap may have a point, in that adding bedrooms could be a surer way to add value than simply adding floor area. We do seem to be obsessed in this country with the number of bedrooms, where house values are concerned.

Cheers
Richard

 

[RonnyRaygun]

I agree with Indus and Gerald.

You are far more likely to make a profit by extending a property in, say, Surrey, than you are in the Welsh valleys for example.
A brick still costs the same amount wherever you live, and building regs and planning charges are comparable wherever you live. You might have to pay your builder a bit more in Surrey, but it won't make that big a difference to the final cost.
An average extension costs around £1000 per square metre. In Surrey you might pay £4000 per square metre for a property; in the Welsh valleys it may well be only £750 or so.
Even allowing for a higher spec finish, there is still room for a good profit in an expensive area. You'll probably make a loss in a cheap one.

Extra bedrooms are a great way to add value up to five bedrooms.
Even extremely expensive properties often have no more than four or five bedrooms. What they do have are en-suites for every bedroom, walk-in wardrobes, dressing rooms, Cinema rooms etc.

Not many families require more than five bedrooms.

 

[SaladFingers]

I'd rather move and take the 50k plus for building, plus the value of my home and find somewhere nicer or bigger.

Unless you really wouldn't want to leave where you're located and where the house is located - or couldn't find anywhere better, then I'd perhaps consider it, but you wouldn't move again.

I've known people to double extend semis or detached houses and never get the money back they've spent, because it's still the same house only bigger in the same location and for the money, they can get a better location.

And for Indus, when I say in the eye of the beholder, I mean because the person at the time thought it were a good idea to extend, spend the money - it's what they wanted, it were their idea, but no one else wanted to buy the place for that much more.[/i]

 

[indus]

I'd rather move and take the 50k plus for building, plus the value of my home and find somewhere nicer or bigger.

Unless you really wouldn't want to leave where you're located and where the house is located - or couldn't find anywhere better, then I'd perhaps consider it, but you wouldn't move again.

I've known people to double extend semis or detached houses and never get the money back they've spent, because it's still the same house only bigger in the same location and for the money, they can get a better location.

And for Indus, when I say in the eye of the beholder, I mean because the person at the time thought it were a good idea to extend, spend the money - it's what they wanted, it were their idea, but no one else wanted to buy the place for that much more.[/i]

And that is exactly the point and waht myself, Gerald, Ronny and Rob are getting at, it all depends where you live. You (and many others) may not want to live in the area you are living in given a choice, however there are plenty of people (like me) for whom the opposite is true.

And this is not because I'm anti apirational, it's because I live in an area which I consider to be the nicest in my neck of the woods. I could not move up the ladder to a significantly better house with £50k, or £100k or even £250k. It would cost a lot more, and so spending a significant amount of money on extending the house makes complete sense.

 

[geraldthehamster]

I'd

And this is not because I'm anti apirational, it's because I live in an area which I consider to be the nicest in my neck of the woods. I could not move up the ladder to a significantly better house with £50k, or £100k or even £250k. It would cost a lot more, and so spending a significant amount of money on extending the house makes complete sense.

However, to return to the original topic, doubling the PD limits for rear extensions isn't going to give a boost to anything. It's part of this government's fallacy that lack of economic activity is due to "red tape", rather than lack of investment and finance.

Cheers
Richard

 

[indus]

I'd

And this is not because I'm anti apirational, it's because I live in an area which I consider to be the nicest in my neck of the woods. I could not move up the ladder to a significantly better house with £50k, or £100k or even £250k. It would cost a lot more, and so spending a significant amount of money on extending the house makes complete sense.

However, to return to the original topic, doubling the PD limits for rear extensions isn't going to give a boost to anything. It's part of this government's fallacy that lack of economic activity is due to "red tape", rather than lack of investment and finance.

Cheers
Richard

Investment/finance/economics aside, you can't possibly double PD limits can you? 8m extensions?? It would be chaos!

 

[tony1851]

If are talking about spending £30k on a £75k terraced house in the North then you might well be right.

quote]

Steady on!!!!!

 

[noseall]

To move from a 3 bed to a four bed costs aboot 70k plus a lot in unrecoverable fees.

You can add a two storey extension on a 3 bed for 50k, plus the amount you recover from the gains of the extension.

Salad spoons is completely clueless at either maths or economics or both.

This is not to say that the economics of upgrading house is not a wise move, it is not the best financially for those on a limited budget.

 

[SaladFingers]

To move from a 3 bed to a four bed costs aboot 70k plus a lot in unrecoverable fees.

You can add a two storey extension on a 3 bed for 50k, plus the amount you recover from the gains of the extension.

Salad spoons is completely clueless at either maths or economics or both.

This is not to say that the economics of upgrading house is not a wise move, it is not the best financially for those on a limited budget.

Wrong. You'll always recover in house price growth.

A two storey extension smack bang in the middle of the same location and next to other poorpers in their regular 3 bed semis? Pointless, any estate agent will tell you that you'll never sell without a loss. After many years at the most, you'll only recoup what you've spent over the years with poor value for money as house prices growth to money spent ratio is at a lower percentage than your neighbours who had the sense to not extend - so therefore in the earlier time, you may as well have moved to somewhere better!

You're obviously clueless in forum etiquette if you have to resort to insults, you bad mannered boy! Now, do your maths

 

[indus]

To move from a 3 bed to a four bed costs aboot 70k plus a lot in unrecoverable fees.

You can add a two storey extension on a 3 bed for 50k, plus the amount you recover from the gains of the extension.

Salad spoons is completely clueless at either maths or economics or both.

This is not to say that the economics of upgrading house is not a wise move, it is not the best financially for those on a limited budget.

Wrong. You'll always recover in house price growth.

A two storey extension smack bang in the middle of the same location and next to other poorpers in their regular 3 bed semis? Pointless, any estate agent will tell you that you'll never sell without a loss. After many years at the most, you'll only recoup what you've spent over the years with poor value for money as house prices growth to money spent ratio is at a lower percentage than your neighbours who had the sense to not extend - so therefore in the earlier time, you may as well have moved to somewhere better!

You're obviously clueless in forum etiquette if you have to resort to insults, you bad mannered boy! Now, do your maths

I don't know why you are finding this concept so difficult to grasp mate. The thing is you are making sweeping generalisations but surely you must understand that the property market in the UK is very heterogeneous.

As an extreme example you surely can't think that the same rules apply to a £75k terraced house up Norf that apply to a £20million house in Hampstead?

Of course not many of us live in the latter but you must see the point? The problem is you are making a judgment on the entire UK property market based on places where you or your friends live.

If you can't grasp that then I'm afraid to say that even though you didn't like Noseall's turn of phrase he is spot on about you being clueless.

 

[SaladFingers]

To move from a 3 bed to a four bed costs aboot 70k plus a lot in unrecoverable fees.

You can add a two storey extension on a 3 bed for 50k, plus the amount you recover from the gains of the extension.

Salad spoons is completely clueless at either maths or economics or both.

This is not to say that the economics of upgrading house is not a wise move, it is not the best financially for those on a limited budget.

Wrong. You'll always recover in house price growth.

A two storey extension smack bang in the middle of the same location and next to other poorpers in their regular 3 bed semis? Pointless, any estate agent will tell you that you'll never sell without a loss. After many years at the most, you'll only recoup what you've spent over the years with poor value for money as house prices growth to money spent ratio is at a lower percentage than your neighbours who had the sense to not extend - so therefore in the earlier time, you may as well have moved to somewhere better!

You're obviously clueless in forum etiquette if you have to resort to insults, you bad mannered boy! Now, do your maths

I don't know why you are finding this concept so difficult to grasp mate. The thing is you are making sweeping generalisations but surely you must understand that the property market in the UK is very heterogeneous.

As an extreme example you surely can't think that the same rules apply to a £75k terraced house up Norf that apply to a £20million house in Hampstead?

Of course not many of us live in the latter but you must see the point? The problem is you are making a judgment on the entire UK property market based on places where you or your friends live.

If you can't grasp that then I'm afraid to say that even though you didn't like Noseall's turn of phrase he is spot on about you being clueless.

Not finding anything hard to understand. Just if I had the money, I'd rather move than end up looking like one of those prats who lives in a crap area but has spent all their money on a flash car.

Next you're going to be calling me bigoted for not sharing your views?

 

[indus]

]QUOTE; Saladfingers

Not finding anything hard to understand. Just if I had the money, I'd rather move than end up looking like one of those prats who lives in a crap area but has spent all their money on a flash car.

Next you're going to be calling me bigoted for not sharing your views? [/quote] Saladfingers








For the love of god, you really are clueless. I'm wasting my time here but I'll have last go.

YOU live in a crap area so you would rather use your money to move to a nicer area. YOU are not happy in the area you live, it's not where you would like to live if you had more money.

And perhaps £50k would help you get out of the shathole you live in and to a better area
That makes perfect sense, I'm not questioning your decision.

However if somebody lives in a nice area (lets say the area YOU would like to live in when YOU are dreaming) where everything is right ie nice people, the best schools, best transport links, low crime/antisocial behaviour.

The sort of area where people (including yourself) aspire to live. The sort of area where it's the BEST area to live for many many miles around. So even if you were able to spend the extra 100s of 1000s of £s needed to move somewhere better there is nowhere better to move without completely uprooting yourself.

THEN it makes perfect sense to extend even if it costs £100000s.



And why oh why have you brought up the subject of people owning flashy cars and crappy houses?? What has people who feel a car is a status symbol and borrow to purchase them in some vain attempt to impress got to do with this discussion??

How many more tangents do you want to go off on???

 

[SaladFingers]

Goodness me. Do calm down