Prpoerty as an investment....

[b0redom]

...before everyone jumps on the bandwagon this isn't about B2L.

I currently live in a 4 bedroom semi in a cul-de-sac of 4 houses. When we moved in it was just me and the Mrs B0redom. Now we have 3 kids and a dog, so could use a bit more space for when the grandparents come to stay etc.

Our next door neighbours are becoming increasingly old and frail, and at some point will shuffle off this mortal coil. When this happens, I am considering buying their house and knocking through a wall to join the two houses internally so that effectivly we will have a 7/8 bedroom house. Assuming I do this, the changes would be reversable so that when the kids leave home we can restore the properties and sell one half.

Anyone see a downside with this? Are there some archaic planning laws? The front of the house would probably stay the same, and we could always stick a communal conservatory on the back to join up the properties? If we move somewhere much bigger we'll get stuck with a massive stamp duty hit, and when the kids leave we'll not really need a house that size anyway.

Is it a plan with no flaws? Or a plan with too many floors?

b0redom

[jamesbrown]

More "General" isn't it?

I'd think carefully about whether you'd get the sort of living space you want, two kitchens, six smaller reception rooms etc., without doing the sort of structural work that would be expensive to undo. I guess you'd need planning permission to convert back to semis. Obviously, you'd have the stamp duty on the second house and then the additional council tax.

[Sockpuppet]

You might want to check that the Royal Mail won't class it as one property and remove the other from existence.


Also you'll probably want a single gas supply, electric supply otherwise you get hit with two lots of standing charges. Be sure to make sure the plumber / sparky knows you want all of this to be reversable. and design the systems accordingly.

[ASB]

You won't need PP for the conversion (though building regs will be needed). You will need PP to revert back to 2 dwellings. At least I think that's the way it works. But everything will be in the wrong place, layout will be odd etc.

It may be worth considering flattening them and building from new - think that should avoid VAT and may be more effective in that you might end up with a property somebody else would like (I appreciate that might not be a concern).

[northernladuk]

Obviously not knowing your circumstances you have two options. One is to give access to it but keep all services as they are ready to be converted back when you come to sell up. It will alwasy feel like two houses and be pretty inconvenient and have a feeling of making do I think.

Or... doing a full conversion job and do it properly so the space feels part of the same house... but will that actually be cost effective.. It will always be two houses knocked together to other prospective buyers so unless it is done really well it won't work. I bet the finished article won't be worth price of them individually unless you are lucky with the location and can make it look like a complete unit.

Not knowing what it looks like I wouldn't be bothering unless you can get it very cheap.. and with the number of people looking for old peoples houses to renovate I don't think it will be that cheap.