Adding Value To Your Home

The collapsing mortgage market has forced many people in to re-evaluating the plans they had for their home, and with stringent new guidelines expected to remove most sources of cheap credit, perhaps now is the time to be trying to increase the value of what you have already.

There are many relatively cheap ways to add value to a property, such as tidying up the garden and modernising the decor, but by far the most obvious is to increase the total square footage available to the occupants. One way of doing this is to build over a garage or other single story structure. These were very popular for a while, but with many modern developments being built pretty much cheek-by-jowl it is proving harder and harder to secure planning permission - God help the person who strips an Englishman of his sun-trap back garden!

Another option is to just build a normal extension to your house, but these can be incredibly costly. An easier method is to have a conservatory installed, the advantage being that the structure is mostly prefabricated and so is easier to build than a full brick construction. Conservatories not only give you an extra room, but they also use the sun's natural energy for heating, which will help you save on the heating bills in spring and autumn. Conservatories can also make the most of any nice views from your house, offering a glass panorama rather than a single pokey window.