LAZY days like today are the perfect time to give your home some TLC to make it look a million dollars.
So we asked five top property experts to share cheap and easy home improvements you can do this afternoon – and they could add £46,900 onto your property‘s value.
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Online property-selling platform Rightmove expects 1.15million homes will be sold this year – so if you’re looking to sell up soon, it will pay to get your house in order.
Simple home improvements like giving your worn furniture a glow up and even re-naming your property could add thousands onto the asking price.
Here are the five tweaks you can do around the house this afternoon.
We have used an average property price of £269,000 based on the Land Registry’s latest figures as a benchmark for estimating how much each tip could boost a property’s value by.
Rename your home: adds £9,000, costs £40
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A little known way of boosting your home’s value is to name it, Tom Evans from online estate agent Purple Bricks says.
Simply adding “The” to your house name could add approximately £9,000 in value. Tom says.
Why not change your home to something more appealing, like The Rose Cottage?
To change your property’s name, you will need to apply to your local council.
Prices may vary so make sure to check with your local council before applying.
For example, South Hams District Council charges £25, while Winchester City Council charges £75.
Add “staging” touches – adds £5,380, costs £10
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If you’ve watched property programmes like Selling Sunset, you’ll have heard about “staging” a house.
This means adding some small finishes, like flowers, nice smells, and dramatic lighting, to elevate your home and get buyers excited.
Tom says: “A house that smells clean, fresh and welcoming can feel more homely and positive.
“This can encourage more offers and even tip buyers towards offering closer to the asking price – rather than negotiating down.
“Making light staging touches, including smells, flowers, lighting, etc, can help secure 1%–2% higher offers in some cases.”
On a £269,000 home, that’s a £5,380 boost in value.
There’s no need to blow all your cash on this, either.
Got a garden? Go outside and pick some fresh flowers and pop them in a vase.
Make your own very own room spray by filling up a spray bottle with water, then just add lemon juice and four or five drops of your favourite essential oil.
Add a statement lightshade for dramatic effect. Dunelm is selling a pendant shade in an olive green colour for a tenner.
Get rid of coloured walls – adds £4k, costs £10
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You may love your pink entrance hall, but there’s no guarantee that budding buyers will.
“Stick to a neutral palette as this will appeal to a wider audience and make it easier for potential buyers to envisage their own touch on the home,” says Tom.
“Brighter or more unusual colours could have the opposite effect.”
Not only is it safer to stick to more neutral tones, it can make your rooms look bigger as well.
Colours like cream, magnolia or a very light grey create an optical illusion of space and openness because they reflect more light.
So if your house is on the smaller side, giving your walls a lick of paint is a great way of making the house look bigger.
If you find cream or white tones too boring, pick a colour that is light and neutral. For example, a 2.5l tin of butterscotch-coloured wall paint from Wickes is currently on sale at £10.
According to instant home-buying company Upstix, new paint can add up to £4,000 to your property’s value, too.
Upcycle your furniture – adds £8,070, costs £150
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Giving your furniture a refresh not only gives your house a new lease of life, but it could boost the value of your home.
According to Upstix, attending to worn furniture and positioning it to make your rooms look bigger could add up to 3% onto the value of your home.
On a typical £269,000 home, that means a £8,070 boost
Websites such as Freecycle and Nextdoor are great places to find free treasures to transform.
Also try car boot sales, Gumtree, eBay or Facebook Marketplace, as well as reuse-network.org.uk.
Ally Booker, who co-runs the online repair business directory wearerepairs.com, says: “For pieces of furniture with feet, replacing them with metal ones will instantly give a more modern look.
“You could paint the whole thing or just a small section, like the legs of a coffee table or a couple of drawers on a desk.
“Yellow looks great and greens are very popular right now.”
We spotted a huge wardrobe being advertised for free on Facebook marketplace, in a south London postcode.
We also saw a gorgeous saffron shade of wood paint selling on Wickes for a tenner – which means you could transform your bedroom without breaking the bank.
Upcycling can be a fun activity to do with the kids, too – get them involved to get the job done quicker.
Cabinet makeover – adds £20,450, costs from £8.70
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The kitchen and bathroom are two rooms that buyers will investigate closely.
This is because these rooms can cost a small fortune to upgrade. A new bathroom costs at least £5,000, and a new kitchen can cost as much as £10,000, according to Checkatrade.
But there’s no need splurge thousands on a big transformation – you can do a makeover on a shoestring budget by making your cabinets look more glam.
Claire Hill, who transforms tired kitchens through her Somerset business, thefurniturerestylist.co.uk, says: “Use self-adhesive vinyl to give it your kitchen cabinet worktop completely new look.
“Get the wrap in a light colour. The light coming in through the windows will bounce off it.”
B&Q has a range of self-adhesive film from around £8 for a two-metre roll, and could be used for bathroom or kitchen cabinets.
Watch YouTube videos to perfect the technique and iron out any tell-tale bubbles.
Even just changing cabinet handles can take a kitchen or bathroom from dreary to dramatic.
Shein is selling black and gold aluminium handles for 70p each. If you needed 10, that would cost £7.
Updating your kitchen to make it look brand new could add up to £7,000 onto your property’s value, according to Jamie Williams, property expert at Pure Property Finance.
Meanwhile, updating the bathroom could add 5% onto your property’s value. Based on the average property price, that’s a whopping £13,450.