On 12 Aug 2005, Dave Plowman (News) wrote

In article ,
neil leslie wrote:
Our bathroom is really rubbish and we're just about to spend a
stupid amount of money on doing it up; around £10,000. Any ideas
on how much this would actually add in value to a house?

Interesting point. Next door has recently changed hands after only
about 3 years. The previous owners bought it from an 80 year old
who had maintained it well, but not modernised much on a 100 year
old house, only as he needed. They changed the layout and
installed a new fitted kitchen, modernised the bathroom, and added
a second one.

The new owners have ripped all that out and replaced it with units
to their taste.

I don't know how often this happens in standard houses, but it's a
well-known phenomenon in high-end real estate sales: buyers won't look
at the place without an all-singing-all-dancing new kitchen and
bathroom, but they invariably hire a decorator/designer who pulls it
all out and starts over.

It's an easy calculation for a developer to make (cost vs quicker
sale), but it's a lot more difficult when when people want to combine
their own wishes as a householder with trying to make a quid on the
improvement.

The OP's got to figure out which hat he's wearing -- owner or developer
-- before he can decide whether a 10K bathroom represents a good
"investment".

--
Cheers,
Harvey