Badly Behaved Neighbours Can Devalue Your Home by £130,000
A lot of work goes into selling your home. Patching up any holes or dents, repainting walls, doors and ceilings, sprucing up the garden and generally making everything as spick and span as possible. So, how infuriating is it to discover that no matter what you’ve done to clean up your home or what you’ve done to try and increase its value, your neighbour’s house could still devalue it by an incredible £130,000!
“How?” we hear you ask, well Powertools2U have uncovered 12 factors of a neighbour’s house that when combined, total up to knock off over £130,000 the asking price of your home. These factors are:
Did you know it doesn’t matter how nice your house is, your neighbour can still drastically knock money off its asking price, just by the way theirs looks? Here’s how…
12 Features of Neighbour’s Home that Can Devalue Your Home
Maintenance Issue |
% Effect on Value |
Effect of Value on the Average UK House (£226,351) |
1. Poor taste of fixtures and furnishings |
4.4% |
-£10,000 |
2. Broken/boarded up windows |
10.7% |
-£24,220 |
3. Run down vehicles on the drive |
5.4% |
-£12,223 |
4. Garnish/ unsightly coloured external buildings/ fixtures |
4.8% |
-£10,865 |
5. Rotting or chipped windows/ door frames |
4.2% |
-£9,507 |
6. Bins lining the street |
2.2% |
-£5,0000 |
7. Dirty brickwork or property frontage |
3.5% |
-£7,922 |
8. Unsightly or imposing extensions and DIY |
7.0% |
-£15,845 |
9. Overflowing gutters |
3.6% |
-£8,149 |
10. Overgrown garden |
4.4% |
-£9,959 |
11. Rubbish or gunk in the driveway/ front garden |
6.1% |
-£13,807 |
12. Building work |
4.7% |
-£10,638 |
TOTAL: -£138,135 |
The 5 Most Costly Features of a Neighbour’s Home
-
Broken/ boarded up windows - £24,220
-
Unsightly or imposing extensions, and DIY - £15,845
-
Rubbish or junk in the driveway/ front garden - £13,807
-
Run down vehicles on the drive - £12,223
-
Garnished/ unsightly coloured external buildings/ fixtures - £10,865
Total: -£76,960
This all comes down to ‘kerb appeal’. Kerb appeal is the first impression a potential buyer gets when they arrive at a property and it can hugely impact on their opinion of the house even before they walk inside. According to research conducted by Barclays, it takes house hunters just 10 seconds to decide if they like a property or not and 35% of buyers won’t even enter a property if they dislike the exterior.
Craig Calder, Director of Barclays Mortgages says,
“It’s fascinating to see the importance that the exterior of our homes can have. We would encourage all homeowners to think about their own property’s kerb appeal and understand that getting the small details right can be one solution that can really boost the financial value of your home.”