Does a kitchen renovation increase home value?
People get kitchen renovations for all sorts of reasons - perhaps you want more space for cooking, or you just don’t like the previous owner’s aesthetic tastes. Whatever the case, it’s a good idea to list out your reasons to help make the decision easier.
Most of the time, a combination of several reasons will be the driving force behind your decision to renovate - but one of the key questions people ask themselves when planning a kitchen reno is whether it’s going to add value to the home’s sale price.
Does renovating your kitchen add value to your home?
In general, yes. In the majority of situations, renovating your kitchen does add value, because it’s all about refreshing tired aesthetics and making your living space better suited to actually being lived in.
For example, people who have a compact kitchen might have it renovated to:
Add more storage
Make large appliances like washing machines and freezers more accessible
Provide more space to cook and host get-togethers.
These are significant changes that will benefit any potential new owners of the home, making it a more attractive prospect for buyers.
Of course, you might not be thinking of selling your home any time soon, so it can be hard to predict the actual impact of a renovation on a sale price. After all, if you live in your home for another ten years, for example, then the aesthetics that made your kitchen attractive at the time of the renovation might not still be in style.
Because of this, it’s usually best to think about your own preferences when considering design, not what will be saleable in the future. In most cases, you’re renovating the kitchen for you, so you should choose whatever you want to do with the space.
However, if you’re renovating the kitchen with the express intention of making your home more saleable in the immediate future, then there are some things to take into account. You don’t have to go completely neutral in your colour scheme and design, but be aware that appealing to the widest range of tastes may be the smartest option.
The key appeal of a newly renovated kitchen in a prospective new home is that the buyers don’t have to do anything with it themselves. This saves them time, effort and money which they can then invest into other areas, making the home more attractive as a purchase.
So, if your kitchen renovation focuses on bold, vibrant colours or things that are only useful or attractive to you, that could affect how saleable it is to others. If you’re renovating with a view to selling, opting for statement choices in the design could mean the renovation brings less of an uptick in sale price than you were hoping for.
How much value does a kitchen renovation add?
In the vast majority of cases, renovating the kitchen does improve a home’s potential sale price or value in the rental market. But, as discussed, the actual amount by which it raises the value can vary depending on a number of conditions.
As well as the actual design choices involved, there are two key factors that affect how much a kitchen renovation will add to your property value. These are:
How much you spend on the renovation (and, by extension, how luxurious the final results are)
The intrinsic value of the property.
The impact of your budget on the eventual value of your renovation is a fairly straightforward one. If you’re investing significantly into the project, chances are you’re using the best materials, the best fitters and construction team and the best designers. The higher the quality of the end result, the more it’s going to add value to your home.
As for the intrinsic value of your property, there is some research to suggest that kitchen renos tend to have the greatest impact in areas where property values are high. This could be because buyers in these areas have a bigger budget and more disposable income to invest in property.
Overall, estimates suggest that renovating your kitchen could add as much as 10% to your home’s value - a sizeable figure. But remember, the most important thing in a kitchen renovation project is to achieve the end results you envisaged, whether you intend to live in your home for one year or 10.
Thinking of investing in a kitchen renovation project? Get in touch or visit our showroom today.