A well-designed home will improve your quality of life – and you’ll reap financial rewards too. We look at the world of renovations.
No less relevant than the established property-buying mantra ‘location, location, location’ is the motto ‘potential, potential, potential’. The proliferation of scaffolding, skips and drilling noise on our streets and endless dinner party conversations all underline the fact that everyone is at it. Building projects are everywhere, because when buying houses we’re all tuned into possible ways that we can improve them. We’re just not as willing to put up with outdated layouts, awkward spaces or unattractive features as we used to be – and we’re all savvy investors too. Not only do we all want to improve our living spaces, but we also want to profit financially from them.
Much of the UK’s housing stock is made up of standard Victorian or Edwardian terraced houses, with their warrens of small rooms, galley kitchens and unused side returns. These layouts don’t suit the demands of 21st century family life, mostly because we now need less separation; kitchens are at the centre of the home and living areas are often integrated with cooking areas.
Extending across the side return to create what can become a vast kitchen space has become commonplace, often taking over the former dining room or back room too and creating space for a separate utility room. Living rooms commonly shrink to become essentially tv rooms, while kitchens dominate most of the ground floor footprint. In terms of investment, a side return is certainly worth it, says Hamish Allan of Winkworth in Islington. “It’s an expensive project if you look at it per square foot, but it creates a very different family space and will increase desirability tenfold when selling,” he says.
Lochaline Street, W6 - £1,500,000 freehold
This wonderful property in Fulham has been extended over the side return to create a stunning living space. Contact Winkworth Fulham & Parsons Green on 020 7731 3388 for further information.
The other obvious thing to do with your three bed terrace is to extend into the loft to create another bedroom and bathroom – this is so cost-effective that it’s simply the sensible thing to do, as long as there’s enough downstairs space to accommodate the additional people catered to by the new bedroom.
A well-designed home can improve quality of life, offer functional solutions on the smallest of sites, and create beautiful spaces even within the most restricted of budgets. Buying a derelict property on the basis of its potential enables the owner to design everything just the way they want it – and after all, not everyone wants to live in a space newly designed by a developer. Often it’s far better to have done it yourself, even if taking on a house refurbishment can be daunting and harder than you think. Hiring a fleet of architects and builders can be time-consuming and costly, and managing them all is a job in itself, which is why many people look to companies that can do everything for them.
West London-based Elnaz Namaki and her business partner Hugo van Bilderbeek run a streamlined business in complete house refurbishments, including a property search service. They’ll find houses for their clients and then strip them back to create luxurious contemporary residences, navigating planning and managing the entire project, from conception to moving in. They’ll take care of floorplans, extensions, moodboards, lighting design and joinery – and they’ll make sure that all the sockets and switches are in the right place too. Their vision is a complete transformation and there are certain clever things that they will always do. Like maximising ceiling height, for instance. Old houses will often have enormous firehoods behind ceiling lights – and it’s easy enough to strip them away and gain probably 15cm. Doors too – they’ll raise the frame and install a taller door. Stripping a house back and redoing the infrastructure may not be for the faint-hearted but there’s no other way to create the full luxe feel with underfloor heating, carefully placed lighting, soundproof doors and unobtrusive pipework.
There has been a marked increase in people looking to buy unmodernised properties, reports Faith Cook of Winkworth in Fulham. She says: “We’re seeing multiple bids on anything unmodernised, because buyers don’t want to pay a premium on something they will have to undo. People are spending more on design and standards are high – everyone wants to maximise the square footage.” Current trends include Crittal windows rather than bifolds, and darker kitchens with large islands.
Valetta Road , W3 - £1,250,000 freehold
Re-imagined and rebuilt by award winning architects Office S&M, this house won a 2018 ‘Don’t Move Improve’ award. Contact Winkworth Shepherds Bush on 020 8735 3266 for further information.
Every year, London’s most ingenious residential design projects are celebrated in New London Architecture’s ‘Don’t Move Improve’ Awards, all demonstrating how even the trickiest spaces can be entirely transformed with a bit of architectural nous. This year’s winner is a terrace house refurbishment and rear extension in south London by architects Procter & Shaw, which provided the existing residence with additional living, dining and study spaces, and was praised by the judges for introducing more natural light via a large glass skylight. One of 2018’s winning houses is currently on the market with Winkworth in Shepherd’s Bush: Valetta House was reconfigured by Office S&M to create a generous living space on the ground floor and a new bedroom in the loft. The architects created a child-friendly house, adding curves to the walls and an arched window for each child. Throughout the Victorian house there’s a rich variety of materials, from encaustic floor tiles and glazed herringbone tiles to fabric banquettes and marble handrail ends.
Sympathetically renovated period properties offer the highest returns, according to Hamish Allan, and his advice is to maintain a house’s history and character while incorporating contemporary elements and beautiful finishes.
Castelnau, SW13 - £4,125 per week
This exceptional award winning five bedroom period house was a Gold Winner at the UK Property Awards in 2016-2017. Contact Winkworth Barnes on 020 8878 7966 for further information.
Jo Dyson, serial renovator and guest speaker at the recent National Homebuilding & Renovating Show adds: “I’d encourage people to design for longevity by creating a home full of items they love and are drawn towards; to be inspired by trends, but ultimately choose what they like. This will stand the test of time and also make it more personal, creating your own design narrative. Instead of being wedded to trends, think about how you’d like to feel in a space and create these emotions through light, materials, textures, but most importantly, special items which are either family heirlooms, acquired pieces that are evocative of a specific time and place or even their own artwork. Furnish your home with pieces that tell a story and stand the test of time.”