Should we value refurb design prior to applying for planning?

adocholiday

Hi all,

We have been working with an architect for a while now to plan a big refurbishment of our house. The design we finalised has been costed at a high level by a builder and QS and is substantially higher than expected. Do you think it's worth paying a valuer to estimate the value of the finished project based on the design? Is this something that people even do?

Gumbo

It won’t increase the value above the cost of the works in my experience

BrokenArrows

adocholiday wrote: »

Hi all,

We have been working with an architect for a while now to plan a big refurbishment of our house. The design we finalised has been costed at a high level by a builder and QS and is substantially higher than expected. Do you think it's worth paying a valuer to estimate the value of the finished project based on the design? Is this something that people even do?

It would be worth it if you really cared about selling in the short term.

But ultimately it would be better to try and reduce the cost.

Sarn

I wouldn’t think it would be worth getting a valuer unless you intend to sell on in the short term.

Looking at the work we did recently, we might get 50-75% back as a lot went in to insulation, new wiring, heating, plumbing, new windows, architect fees. A lot of people bidding on houses have no idea how much getting work done costs at the moment so wouldn’t add a huge premium to the one next door that has had little work done.

Realistically you have to look at the value of properties in your area, is there a ceiling on what is likely to be achieved? Bar a few exceptions, the houses in our estate haven’t achieved a huge amount more than those with none done.

adocholiday

Thanks all,

I guess the point of the whole question is that we are intending to finance the project by topping up the mortgage, but the bank has said they set their limit on what we can borrow based on the value of the house once the works are complete. The total LTV of the mortgage + top up cannot exceed 80%. I know the bank will appoint their own valuer for this but what we want to avoid is sinking more money into planning/architect fees and then finding out that we can't fund it. If we were to pay for our own valuer to do an initial assessment it might go someway towards pointing us in the right direction, or giving us some leverage if the bank's valuer were to differ wildly.

Also the house is a standalone property and the entire appearance and layout of the house will change so we are expecting the value to increase substantially as a result.

BnB

I think you would be better off talking direct to the bank and getting them and their valuer involved now. At the end of the day, no matter what a private valuer says, the only ones you really need to convince are the bank.