Climbing your way up the property ladder and working your way toward owning your dream home is not a simple task. Not only does it require a certain element of luck, as your property and the greater market hopefully align in your favour, but it also requires a substantial amount of work.
While trends can occur in various environments and ultimately depend on the region your property happens to be in, there are many universal design choices and renovations that can improve your property’s value. This year is particularly significant for changing market preferences as many buyers begin looking for assets and designs with COVID-19’s lockdown in mind, which has notably increased demand for suburban and rural properties.
Convert to Apartments
Depending on your proximity to a city or town, there is still substantial value in converting a two or three-bedroom house into multiple and separate apartment units. Doing so increases the potential rent earnings from a single location and can make the property more desirable for buyers and investors down the line too. This also offers the opportunity to manage temporary rentals, such as through Airbnb. It is, however, important to consider any planning restrictions as well as safety regulations that might affect the conversion as they generally differ from house to apartment.
Futureproof
A little forward thinking during a renovation can save you, and potential future buyers, the time and money it would cost to do it twice. For example, electric cars, while still some time away from becoming mainstream, will eventually replace petrol and diesel models. Putting in the electrics for a home-charging point now, combined with other electrical work, will save the need to revisit the property’s inner electricity system at later date. Even if you’re only planning superficial changes, there are always elements you can add, such as USB charging sockets on your walls.
Garden Structures
As more people begin working from home, having an office space is quickly becoming a priority. Since having one inside the home can be tricky, as well as make a work-life balance difficult to achieve, more homeowners are building them outside as a separate structure.
Building external annexes or log cabins in the garden, ones that allow for a potential office with suitable internet connection and wiring, can greatly increase your property’s value as more buyers are searching with remote working in mind.
Fewer Larger Rooms
Giving your home a sense of space is a great way to improve its value. It allows more light through the home, larger space to accommodate guests, and gives the impression of a larger home
Consult a structural engineer to identify your load-bearing walls and to elaborate exactly which rooms could potentially be merged. It is also important to note that, simply because a wall is integral to the structure, this does not mean it should remain unused. There are many ways in which arches and steelwork can safely allow for them to be renovated.
