Over recent years there have been hundreds of programmes on TV about developing property.
There’s ‘Homes under the Hammer’ which traces the property developers, through to ‘Grand Designs’ where people create their dream home – and everything in between.
During the property boom, which burst a few years ago with the onset of the recession, the general public were eased into thinking that everyone could get rich quick from bricks and mortar. That turned out to be a pipe-dream where people really did get themselves into trouble.
Bricks and mortar will probably always be a safe long term bet. The view you have on a development project will be coloured by what you intend to do with it. Developing to buy and sell or rent is a whole different subject and one for another day – in this article we’ll assume that you are developing to create your own home for the future.
Depending on your experience and enthusiasm, you might call a development project one which requires complete redecoration. Or you might call a development project one which requires completely gutting, extending and a new roof.
If you want to create a dream home of your own, to your own specification, and in the area of your choice, then a development project is probably for you. The beauty of this kind of job is that you don’t have to live with someone else’s taste and fittings, you can take the chance to make a huge mess, move walls, build extensions, change windows and create an apple from a banana. Most importantly, you can get the right location for you and make the house fit your needs, because you’ll never be able to change the location of even the most perfect house in the world.
So you go to look at a house that’s on the market. The first thing you should ask yourself is about the location. Is it where you want to live? What’s the street like, is there room to build on, have neighbours done any similar work, how near are the neighbours, how big is the garden, does the house face the right way according to your preferences for the movement of the sun – you’ll know what you like and dislike and these are things which you can’t change with new cement and a hammer.
The second thing that you need to do is have a good look at the structural integrity of the building. You should get a survey before you buy any property, but before you get to this stage some good old common sense will serve you well. Have a look at the external walls and ask if they are bowing or cracked, does the roof look like the ridge is dipping? There’s a chance that the roof will need re-tiling, but to put new timbers on will only add to the cost. It’s likely that a significant project will require everything to be stripped back to the brick work, but ideally the structure of the foundations, walls and roof should be sound so that you only (only, ha ha) need to replace the surface finishes.
If you buy an old property, maybe which someone elderly has lived in, the chances are that the decoration leaves a lot to be desired. Wallpaper and paint and dirt can all be removed quite easily, but have a look at things that will require trades people and expense to change. Look at the plug sockets and the electric meter – do they look really old fashioned? Because if they do the chances are that it will need rewiring. This is not only an expensive task it’s a disruptive one that needs doing before you can think about plastering and redecorating.
Have a look at the central heating and boiler – the same applies to them. Is there any loft insulation? What about the windows? Do they need replacing? Whether you prefer uPVC or wood, it’s still an expensive job. Kitchens and bathrooms go without saying, you can tell at a glance whether they are to your taste and you can budget anything from £250 for a bathroom suite that you fit yourself up to £10,000 and more for a bespoke bathroom, fitted for you, with cupboards. The cost of a kitchen can be as long as a piece of string, but will certainly be a few thousand pounds.
Before you think about trimming up with furniture and your own things, a development project can run to thousands of pounds in all the stuff that you don’t even see – the plumbing, electrics, plastering, insulation, roof repairs, damp proofing… depending on the age and state of project that you are looking at, the list goes on…
However, if you buy a wreck and have a decent budget and some vision, it’s a fabulous opportunity to create something special. It’s a chance to knock walls out (make sure they aren’t load bearing, and always consult with someone qualified to judge before you do this), to make windows bigger, to extend, create loft conversions, and generally do something really special which is unique to you.
If you haven’t previously been paying attention to the home shows on TV start watching them, buy some magazines and look at houses as you are travelling around and about. The ideas will mount up in your head and give you inspiration for what you could do to your wreck.
If you want to go further than an interior refurb and do some serious remodelling and extending, it would pay you to employ the services of a professional, which you will need anyway if you intend to extend and require planning permission.
Someone who draws plans will be able to help you to draw up the schemes required for planning, and their fees would be anything up to around £1000. If you want to go to town with your new development, then you might be better with an architect. They work on a fee scale set by RIBA which is based on the projected value of the development, and their fee can run to several thousand pounds, depending on what you are doing.
If you are thinking about building extensions and carrying our remodelling, take a look at the ‘Thinking about a Building Project’ page.
Something else you need to think about is where you are going to live while all this is going on. If you are managing an interior refurb and replacing kitchens and bathrooms you will be able to live in your property, albeit with some discomfort – you can expect to wash your pots in the bathroom sink while your kitchen is being fitted, and live on microwave meals cooked on the living room floor.
If you are stripping all of a property back to the brick and turning it into a complete building site, then it will be impractical to try to live there and you ought to come up with a plan to see you through the worst of the building work at least. That might involve staying with relatives, at a hotel or in rented accommodation.
Don’t be fooled, this road to property perfection is a slow and expensive one that involves a lot of hard work – even if someone does the building work for you – but it’s very worthwhile and very satisfying when you finally start to furnish your new home and move into it. If you like that kind of thing it’s exciting to be able to plan everything and see it all take shape, and then to buy all the furniture and fittings for what’s really your brand new home. It’s also a chance to get everything built to a good standard of construction, where you don’t have to do any serious maintenance for many years to come.
So good luck with your wreck, and if this sounds like a project that you’ve completed and you’d like to share your experiences with us, please get in touch. You can email jane@theRabbitPatch.co.uk or leave your comments below.
Internal stud work and building – would you be able to live like this?
Serious internal building work
