Real talk - increasing costs making renovations too expensive

8 months ago

last modified: 8 months ago

Costs of renovating in the UK have gone up considerably in the past two years thanks to a lack of labour post Brexit and inflation. What have you found in terms of still stalling, stopping or not making a difference to your renovation plans? We had a budget of £150,000 and I'm no longer sure we can do it. This was zone 4 London. We were hoping to do

3 x 7 m kitchen extension and sliding glass door
Removing a structural wall in this kitchen-diner (to turn it one room)
All the kitchen units, appliances making good
Remove rads to the ground floor, install underfloor heating and new engineered wood floor to all of downstairs, 50m sq
New architraves, skirting and 5 internal doors including the upstairs
New small family bathroom which would mean moving the current boiler along the wall

Is this no longer doable for £150k? What are your experiences with quotes right now? It is increasingly looking like in our neighbourhood that people are pulling out of renovation projects (august 2023)

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Comments (4)

Jo Bloggs
8 months ago
We started a renovation in late 2020. We are trying to do as much as we can ourselves to keep costs down eg. all decorating, kitchen and bathroom fitting. Some prices have rocketed and it isn't just materials. Some tradespeople are charging eye watering hourly/daily rates. Our other bugbear is the cost of insulating our home. To have to pay VAT at 20% on materials because we are doing the work ourselves hurts when we are being encouraged to insulate our homes. We will finish our reno but it will be some time off as it is so time consuming.
Sara
8 months ago
last modified: 8 months ago
Lurking on this too. Can I ask, do you regret it? Sounds like the spiralling costs and tradie rates have been stressful to deal with. Did you have a contingency %? Am in a similar position....
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Katie Collings
7 months ago
last modified: 7 months ago
After quotes of £70-£75k inc of VAT just to create a 15m square extension with 2 steels to in fill a gap knocking out part of current kitchen wall this does include screed floor 2nd fix plumbing & electrics but no kitchen units/ flooring etc we've pulled the plug on doing the extension, I cannot justify that cost nor can I proceed knowing any issues or increased costs/contingency will then wipe out kitchen fund gutted but I'd rather feel more financially secure and come back to it later , we're down on south coast but not London still prices and cost of trades are eye watering currently then as mentioned there's the dreaded VAT on top!
Claire
7 months ago
You are right to be cautious, budgeting boring but so important and definitely need contingency especially with larger cost projects. I work in finance and often people have relied on taking out further credit when the reno is already underway to fund the later stages and/or cover unforeseen expenses but now with rates increased the cheap credit isn’t available and more people are getting declined on affordability checks. I suspect that’s also why you are seeing people cancel

Real talk - increasing costs making renovations too expensive

Comments (4)

Jo Bloggs

Sara

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Katie Collings

Claire

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