You love your home, your neighbourhood and your neighbours. The local pub knows what your favourite drink is and the corner shop makes sure it keeps your preferred brand of soya milk in stock.
However, you’re suddenly feeling that the place is a bit too small. Maybe you’ve started working from home more, or had another baby. Maybe your eldest child wants more space or maybe you’d always planned to move or extend and now feels like the time.
What do you do? Do your beloved pub and neighbours for some extra space, or do you simply make more space by extending your house?
Things you need to consider
Sometimes the state of the property market helps you to make up your mind. If things are a bit slow, and you don’t fancy the big stamp duty bill that might come with moving to a bigger property, then it might be a case of improving rather than moving.
Not only could you avoid the stamp duty costs, but you could significantly increase the value of your property. If you add an extra bedroom, for example, then you could increase your value by 11% while a loft conversion could mean an extra 20%.
Not all improvements are to the bottom line
Some improvements are more for comfort than material gain, however. A second bathroom is now seen as standard for many buyers, so finally converting that understairs cupboard into a very small littlest room is more a matter of catching up than getting ahead.
If each morning is a battle for the bathroom, however, then having two (or three) will ease tensions and prove something of a draw if and when you finally do decide to sell.
By extending rather than moving, you could invest money that would otherwise be spent on stamp duty on the house you love, which may buy you a few more years (or longer) in your favourite postcode.
