You are happy in your home, but for one reason and another, it seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
Perhaps your cute toddler has grown into a strapping teenager and acquired a younger brother or sister. Perhaps you have bought so many box sets of Game of Thrones that they take up half the living room. Or you have just decided to work from home and need a bit of office space. What do you do? Sell up and move to a bigger property? Or extend your present property until it is big enough for your needs?
It is a dilemma which confronts most homeowners at some time in their lives, and their decision, to some extent, often depends on the state of the housing market.
At a time when property prices continue to rise, it can make sense to move house and progress up the housing ladder that way.
When the market is a bit sticky – as it is at the moment in some parts of the country – extending a property can be a smart option. It is certainly one which more and more homeowners seem to be contemplating. Apart from anything else, they know that they will save money on stamp duty, and the other costs, associated with moving house.
The other big bonus of extending, of course, is that it adds value to your property. A two-bedroom house that has been upgraded into a three-bedroom house is worth significantly more. How much value is added by the various extension options – from loft conversions to conservatories, from additional bedrooms to extra loos – varies from property to property.
Nationwide figures suggest that a loft conversion could increase the value of a property by 21 per cent, while adding an extra bedroom through an extension might add 11 per cent.
