Thought you had to put your current house on the market to achieve those home goals? We are here to prove you wrong.
Want to get a better house but cannot afford the house move? We have some delightful news for you. You can put that move on hold and upgrade your home living space using the methods described in this article. Interested? Good. Let us begin.
You Do not Have to Move House
Let us get that idea out of the way first. We do not need to move house. If you already own your own home, there is no need to spend hours searching. Nobody enjoys the process, the uncertainty, and the lack of security that comes from buying a new home. It may be exciting, but it comes with a wealth of unknown factors that can cause additional cost.
What if you find your dream home and the roof needs replacing? What if the electrics are a hundred years old? What if the windows need replaced? These are all common risks when you make that move.
So, if you have a house that you already own, and if that house is in good shape, then why move? Why not upgrade it, instead?
Why Upgrade Your Home?
There are multiple benefits to upgrading your home. Here are our favourites…
Increased Price
A new room, a new lick of paint, a car port or outdoor studio – all these things increase the overall value of your home. If you ever did decide to move on, these additions you make are an investment set to make you wealthier.
Refreshed House
A change is as good as a holiday, so they say. Making a change in one or more rooms of your house could be all it takes to make you happy again. This way, you get the freshness of a change without the emotional turmoil of a full house move.
Pays for Itself
When you take out a loan to do the work of house upgrades, you must repay that loan. However, if you use alternative funding and unlock some of your home’s equity, home improvements pay for themselves. You can now get a HELOC in the UK too. This is a great way to cover the cost of a room addition or new garage. Using a Home Equity Line of Credit in your UK home will let you conduct refurbishments using the value of your home to pay for it. You still must repay it, but the rates are good by comparison to a bank.
Makes Neighbours Jealous
Everyone wants to set tongues wagging in the right way. Go on, admit it, you want to exceed the Jones’s.
Ways to Upgrade Your Current Home
Now that we know it is going to benefit us, here are the ways you can turn your current home into your dream home.
Room Addition
If you add a bedroom to your home, you can add a considerable amount of value to your house. Adding a double bedroom can add 10% of the overall price of your property to the value. If you have a £100,000 house, this will put you up to £110,000 total value. We have seen other estimates that place this at 15%[i].
Conservatory or Garden Room
Another form of room addition is outside the home. Add a conservatory for a nice place to sit in the summer or add a garden room. Garden rooms are things like home offices, pool houses, and studios.
2nd Storey Room Addition
A second storey room addition is trickier than a ground floor room addition. If you have an attached garage, or an existing ground floor extension, you can add value to your property by adding a second storey. These require planning permission here in the UK.
Kitchen or Bathroom Remodel
You can pick and choose rooms to refurbish. Kitchens and bathrooms are commonly upgraded because they are at the heart of the home and see frequent use. A kitchen or bathroom remodel can cost from a few thousand upwards, depending on the level of luxury required[ii].
Whole House Refurbishment
Lastly, if you have moved into an old home and it is in bad shape, a whole house refurbishment may be the only way to save your investment. The HELOC is particularly good for this, just because it allows you to borrow incrementally without adding cost in the same way that a bank loan might.
Whole house refurbishments can add value to your home, but they are often conducted to update old fashioned houses.
Finding your Dream home
You do not need to move; you just need a little imagination.
