Considering buying a house locally (south Wales) but think the asking price is a bit high.

Another house on the same (small) street has just sold, it is not in such good decorative condition but does have a loft conversion and off-street parking.

Off-street parking is difficult to value as it doesn’t have much capital cost and resulting value depends if you have a car you want to park.

However I think it should be able to put a reasonably valid price on a loft conversion. It is a ‘hip to gable’ conversion as described here with three velux windows. The Estate agents details describe it as a loft room rather than bedroom which I am guessing means it falls short of some sort of building regulation.

My basic research suggests a capital cost of something like £20k for something like this conversion and the fact that the new buyer doesn’t have to do it no doubt adds value for all but the most enthusiastic amateur project manager.

So my thinking would be that there if the houses were like for like and taking into account capital cost plus added value the loft conversion might justify £25k on an asking price.

Any experience or opinions gratefully received…

If it’s not an actual room it’s barely worth the capital cost.

To make it legit might either be impossible /costly /need to rip it all out and start again.

Almost impossible to value without seeing and knowing what it falls short on. But rather assured if it was a legit room it would be as such on the schedule.

My basic research suggests a capital cost of something like £20k for something like this conversion and the fact that the new buyer doesn’t have to do it no doubt adds value for all but the most enthusiastic amateur project manager.

A lot more than that for a proper loft conversion, I would say.

Ah sorry, I should have been clearer, it is a ‘room’ on the schedule it is just not described as a ‘bedroom’.

My understanding is that you can have a perfectly permitted room but that there is a higher threshold in standards for a bedroom (headroom, insulation, stairs, fire proofing).

The details and pictures look like a very usable room with proper stairs to it.

I thought that if the room is to be a liveable space, then there is a standard set of requirements.

Also, you want to be sure that the structural work has been done properly.

Run away

Loft conversions (Dorma) seem to be more like £30k around our way (Manchester).

Loft conversions are often a pig to get furniture into and have no door to isolate sound from the rest of the house

things to consider if you plan to sleep in one

As per my original post it is the house <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>without</span> the loft conversion we are looking to potentially buy but trying to assess the value of a loft room conversion to come up with a comparison value.

A loft conversion would  typically add around 15-20% on the value of the house.

So you’re just trying to price the value of the conversion so you have ammunition to knock down the price of the house you want, or are you thinking about converting the other house?

Basically, there is little or no actual value in a loft room which does not meet regs. It may make the house more attractive to individual buyers, but you can’t count it as a functional bedroom when you come to sell.

I’m not sure your logic is going to work.

Whatever you try to knock off for not having the loft, you’ll need to add back on for it being in far better decorative condition.

It doesn’t matter if it is called a ‘room’ or not.

Unless it is is called a ‘bedroom’ or ‘living room’ in the sales documents and the owner has the relevant local authority documents to prove the ‘habitable room’ usage classification it is really just a store/ workshop etc and the associated value is minimal.

Loft conversions are often a pig to get furniture into and have no door to isolate sound from the rest of the house

We had to put a fire door in ours. That, plus the insulation in the floor makes it the quietest room in the house.

£40k down south undecorated for my conversion including a dormer. Still gave us a good sized bedroom and another bathroom and was cheaper than moving. It’s all up to regs so like to think I would recoup most if not all of that cost if I came to sell. If it wasnt up to regs then I would say it’s a lottery, some folk would probably still pay silly money but personally I wouldn’t say it adds a huge amount of value.

I guess it depends. If two identical houses were for sale, and one had an unofficial (but still staircased/plastered etc) loft conversion, how much more would you pay? I’d say that in a 3-bed house I’d probably pay 10% more for the one with the conversion – it doesn’t affect me day-to-day whether its classified or not (although, a classified one is definitely worth more) – I would find the space useful, and use it. I think its more than negligible but less than a proper conversion – where it falls on that list might depend on the ease of buying floorspace where you are anyway

Our friends are just having a hipped out loft conversion done in Cardiff, £38K including a bathroom and new roof to the front, that’s on a typical twenty foot wide Victorian terraced, so that’s your ballpark cost for fully official, unofficial is anybody’s guess.