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When you first buy a home, it is typically ideal for your current situation and perhaps a few years. It isn’t often that the first house you buy is where you live forever. With growing families and the instability of the job market – it is more and more common for children to stay at home for longer, move back to the family home, or for elderly family members to move in.
And while you might adore your house, it can start to become difficult to make sure that everyone under the roof has enough space. While living together has a lot of bonuses, perhaps one of the most difficult things is that when it comes to arguments, private conversations, or just getting some peace – it can be tough.
Moving home might cross your mind more than a few times – and you might even be in a position to do so. But then, you might consider all of the ways that you could add extra space to your current home, increase the value and get to stay where you are happy.
It can be a tough decision to make, though – should you move house or add an extension? We’ve listed a few factors to take into account before making a decision.
Cost
There is no denying that the cost of moving house can be a lot once all of the fees are factored in, the moving costs, and more. Unless you want to move at this point in your life, it can feel like the cost is just too much.
In some cases, depending on the type of extension you are adding to your home – the price can come close! When moving house, the fees, charges, and moving costs are effectively money that you have to spend and don’t see much in the way of return.
However, if you choose to upgrade your home with a Mansard loft conversion or a conservatory – you are instantly adding value to your home. And when you decide to sell in the future, you will see a return on that spend.
Planning
With almost anything you want to do in terms of extensions, you are going to need planning permission, and you might not get it. Working with a company that is happy to put applications through is a great start – but there is no guarantee that permission will be granted.
In many cases, people don’t realise which extensions come under planning permission requirements and what doesn’t – and there have been more than a few occasions that fines have been issued.
Check to see if the plans you have are even possible and what you’d need to do to make sure it works.
Disruption
Both moving home and having an extension will put your life in some sort of disruption. With moving house, you and your family might feel displaced for a while, it might take everyone a short while to settle in, and younger children need to make new friends in school. However, over time this becomes a distant memory.
In the lead-up to moving, half of your belongings are in boxes, selling items is happening, people are coming in and out of your home for viewings, and the timing of selling and closing on a new home can be tight.
When it comes to a home extension, no matter where in the home you have it, there is going to be a team of people in and out, boots leaving footprints, millions of (well-deserved) cups of coffee and tea, and a lot of noise. Many people choose to leave the home while the work is being done – but that is an extra expense on top!
Consider how good you are with change, how much the children can cope with upheaval and if you just want a new challenge. Consider the factors that affect you and your family – and what the future looks like. In both cases, there will be a period of disruption.
Are all home extensions worth it?
Just like when you consider things like a kitchen or bathroom makeover – you need to know which one is going to give you the most benefit. Everything added to your home should give you something in terms of the lifestyle that you want.
When it comes to extensions, the most popular ones are loft, basement and conservatory. However, kitchen extensions have been gaining popularity for many years now. A home extension should be something that will give you immediate satisfaction when you look at the value it adds to your life. If you own a leasehold property, it’s also worth factoring in the lease extension fees, as they could influence your overall decision on whether an extension is the best investment.
For example, loft extensions and conversions can create guest bedrooms, extra rooms for children who are growing up and need their own space – or some peace and quiet away from it all for the people running the house.
When we talk about worth here, what we are really talking about is the value that getting the extension will give you. So, to answer the question, are all home extensions worth it? It entirely depends on the needs of your family – but here are the ones that add cash value to a home:
- Loft conversion increases value by around 12%
- Single-story extensions add around 10% value
- Kitchen extension gives a 5% uplift in value
- Conservatory up to 7% in value
Future
One of the real deciding factors, if you should move home or go for an extension, is how the future of your family looks like. Now, while we can never be sure exactly what will happen in the future – we can make plans. Perhaps you know that you want to have more children or foster/adopt in the future. Perhaps you have been waiting years to finally get a giant dog. Or maybe you know that you want to take care of some of your elderly relatives in a few years.
The shape of your future can mean that adding a little bit extra room is enough, or it could be time to look for somewhere that has more room – and space to build extra in the future if you want to.
If moving or adding an extension is out of the question, here are some tips for making more space out of a small home.
This post is contributed by a content partner. The content is meant to inspire you how to live a slow, simple, soulful and sustainable lifestyle and may contain (affiliate) links to articles, websites or products/services that you might be interested in.
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