Make it your own: eight in 10 Londoners would choose to buy a doer-upper home and add value — rather than buy a perfect property

Home extensions, such as a loft renovation or kitchen revamp, can add huge value to a home's worth
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Ruth Bloomfield22 August 2018

More than eight out of 10 Londoners dream of buying an old house they can remodel, while four in 10 are keen to find a total wreck, according to a new study.

From basic redecoration to installing new kitchens and bathrooms, to full-scale renovations, 85 per cent of buyers in the capital see the financial benefits of “doing up” a property — but they also value a house that suits their needs, according to the research by Jackson-Stops estate agents.

Fewer than one in 10 wants a perfect property to move into. The findings are backed by recent research from insurance firm Hiscox, which found that the number of people carrying out major home improvements has increased fivefold in the last five years.

The most profitable improvement is a loft extension to create an additional bedroom, which adds an impressive 11 per cent to the value of a property. Installing a new kitchen adds about 5.5 per cent, while a new bathroom will add 2.6 per cent.

Nick Leeming, chairman at Jackson-Stops, says buyers want to purchase cheaper, unmodernised properties to reduce their entry costs and save on stamp duty, and hope they can spend the money they have saved on doing up the property.

Leeming’s note of caution is to make sure you can get planning permission for all your extension dreams before you buy, and for guidance, maybe look around the area and see what other people have been allowed to do.

For the super-adventurous buyer with a big budget, London’s most expensive doer-upper is the former Averard Hotel at Lancaster Gate in W2, originally built as two grand townhouses and converted into a hotel in the Thirties.

The white stucco building, which has been empty more than 10 years, has 60 bedrooms, and is listed with Fine & Country for £26.8 million – a substantial £8.2m reduction on the £35 million price tag when it first came to the market last year.

On a more realistic note, families could pick up a four-bedroom period house in the popular Harringay Ladder grid of Victorian streets in north London. In need of modernisation, it’s on the market with Anthony Pepe estate agents for £800,000.