By David Byers.
Speaking with David Byers in The Times this week, Black Brick’s Founder and Managing Partner, Camilla Dell shares her top tips for what to do (and what NOT to do) to get the best price for your property.
Home “Improvements” That Can Devalue a Prime Property
Not every home upgrade adds value — and some of the most expensive ones can actively work against a seller. Drawing on our experience advising buyers across prime central London, we’ve seen first-hand how certain features, however costly to install, can put buyers off or knock significant sums from a property’s value.
Basements: A Feature That Can Cut Both Ways
Basement conversions were once the ultimate status symbol in prime London, with some of the capital’s most extensive subterranean developments built beneath properties in Kensington Palace Gardens and Kensington itself. But a poorly conceived basement can do more harm than good. As Black Brick Managing Partner Camilla Dell explains:
“Basements by their nature are dark and have no windows, so you have to consider how that space will be used. For example, bedrooms cannot be designated or sold as a bedroom unless it has a window.”
The issue is particularly acute with sprawling, multi-level basements, which often fail to deliver the value their construction cost implies:
“Some of the worst basements I’ve seen are multilevel ones. Space is often created for beauty salons, massage rooms, gyms — but the reality is these spaces are rarely used. Buyers do not place as much value in terms of price per square foot on basement space as they do on floors that are above ground. The differential can be as much as 50 per cent in the worst cases.”
Done well — with a clear, practical use and access to natural light — a basement conversion can still add genuine value, and remains one of the property enhancements most likely to justify its cost when paired with the right planning permission. The key is usability and light, not size for its own sake.
Indoor Swimming Pools
Indoor pools have become a familiar feature in larger UK homes, often installed in basement spaces with limited natural light. In practice, many go largely unused, while running costs — particularly heating — can be substantial, and poor management can lead to damp and odour issues. Older houses with pools can also be genuinely harder to sell, and owners who have drained a pool ahead of a sale are often better advised to refill it, so buyers can see the space functioning as intended rather than as an empty hole.
Oversized Garden Offices
The shift to home working drove a surge in garden office installations, with close to a million UK homeowners adding one in the six months following the first lockdown. Used proportionately, a garden office remains an attractive feature for buyers. The problem arises when a home office or garden building becomes so large it significantly eats into garden space — a trade-off that can actively deter buyers, particularly families with younger children who prioritise outdoor space over a large outbuilding.
Research from Savills illustrates just how much garden size matters to value: buyers are paying in the region of £424,000 for an average three-bedroom home with a large garden, compared with roughly £260,000 for an equivalent property with a minimal garden — a gap that underscores how permanently outdoor space has become embedded in buyer priorities since the pandemic.
Oversized or Overly Bold Kitchens
Open-plan kitchens remain a strong driver of value when done well, but knocking through every wall to create one vast kitchen-diner — often at the expense of any separate living space — can work against a sale. Buyer research bears this out: close to a third of house-hunters say they’d pay more for a home that keeps the kitchen, dining room and living room as distinct spaces, even though the majority still value a newly modernised kitchen. The lesson is one of proportion — a stylish, updated kitchen adds value; a kitchen that dominates the entire ground floor may not.
“Loadsamoney” Extras
Saunas, steam rooms, golf simulators, bowling alleys and cinemas are the features most likely to fall into what agents describe as the “more money than sense” category. Their appeal is often highly cultural — buyers from certain markets place real value on saunas and steam rooms, for example — but for many UK buyers in a compact London townhouse, these extras are simply additional space to modernise or remove. Where such features are included, quality is everything: poorly executed versions are quickly identified by top-end buyers as a cost to strip out and replace, rather than an asset. Highly niche additions — a koi carp pond being a good example — are rarely valued by buyers and are more often seen as an expensive liability to remove.
Our Take
The common thread across all of these examples is proportion and usability. Features that are tastefully executed, well-lit and genuinely functional tend to protect or enhance a property’s value; those built to excess — regardless of the money spent — are frequently viewed by buyers as a cost to undo rather than a benefit to inherit. For sellers considering major works, the question worth asking isn’t “will this impress me?” but “will the next buyer actually use this?”
Read the full article here.