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Which home improvements add the most value to your property

2nd December 2019

Research by HaMuch.com reveals that installing a conservatory is the most cost-effective home improvement, increasing property value by £7,387 after costs. Other beneficial improvements include kitchen renovations and redecorations. Loft conversions add significant value but are costly, while solar panels provide minimal immediate value benefits, mainly reducing electricity bills.

best home improvements

A conservatory is best home improvement to add value to your home

Adding a conservatory is the most cost-effective way of adding value to your property, research from tradespeople comparison site HaMuch.com has revealed.

Christmas can be a tough time to sell in a quieter market and ensuring your property stands out from the crowd can cost money.

HaMuch.com looked at the percentage value added by a number of home improvements on the average house once you’ve accounted for the cost of the work and found that installing a conservatory costs £6,675 but increases the price by £14,062, or 6.0%.

This means you increase the property value by £7,387 after factoring in the money spent on the installation.

Kitchen and all-over redecoration – good options

Other value-for-money home improvements you can make are installing a kitchen, adding £4,890 of value after taking costs into account.

Meanwhile conducting an all-over redecoration adds £4,765 to the house price after costs.

Loft conversions – a big difference

Converting your loft into a living area increases the property value by 10.8%, or £25,312, but it’s an expensive affair.

It’s estimated to cost £21,000 to carry out and you may need to gain planning permission, while there are practical barriers, as you may have to alter the roof structure, add windows and/or a staircase.

Solar panels – a slow burn

While solar panels may be environmentally friendly, it’s very much a slow burn in terms of getting value from them.

They cost £4,000 to install and only increase a property’s value by £1,172, or 0.5%,

Therefore savings with solar panels are generally limited to lowering your electricity bills.

Landscaped gardens – a negligible difference

Landscaping your garden makes little difference to the value of your home.

It only increases the value by £3,281 but the landscaping costs £3,000 – so you only gain £281.

Founder and CEO of HaMuch.com, Tarquin Purdie, commented:

“Revamping your property is a viable alternative to moving to a bigger home and you don’t have to worry about associated costs above and beyond the price of a job while moving will include other costs such as stamp duty.

Improving your home can also help increase its value in the event that you are looking to sell and adding a conservatory is the most cost-effective way of increasing your property’s value.

However, not every improvement will add value so it’s worth researching first, although if you want to make a guaranteed difference to your home’s value, a loft conversion is the way to go despite the high up-front costs.

Solar panels are the only improvement where you lose money in terms of adding immediate value, but if you aren’t looking to sell, you should be able to profit from lower electricity bills on a longer-term basis, and that’s not to mention the obvious environmental benefits.”

Renovation / improvement Added value (%) Estimated average cost UK Average House Price Added value (£) Difference (Added value – cost)
Conservatory

6.0%

£6,675

£234,370

£14,062

£7,387
Kitchen

5.5%

£8,000

£234,370

£12,890

£4,890
All over re-decoration

3.1%

£2,500

£234,370

£7,265

£4,765
Loft conversion

10.8%

£21,000

£234,370

£25,312

£4,312
Boiler / central heating

1.9%

£2,375

£234,370

£4,453

£2,078
Roof

3.1%

£5,750

£234,370

£7,265

£1,515
Bathroom

2.6%

£4,625

£234,370

£6,094

£1,469
Double glazing

3.0%

£6,250

£234,370

£7,031

£781
Landscaped Garden

1.4%

£3,000

£234,370

£3,281

£281
Fitting solar panels

0.5%

£4,000

£234,370

£1,172

-£2,828

Founder and CEO of HaMuch.com, Tarquin Purdie, commented:
Notes to editors: –

  1. Data source for average costs: HaMuch database and the Land Registry.
  2. HaMuch was founded since 2015.
  3. Tarquin Purdie has over two decades of experience working within the trade sector.
  4. Tarquin has been involved, owned and ran a number of businesses across property ownership, plumbing and heating and continues to do so today.
  5. HaMuch is the tradesperson comparison site that finds the best value trades people – based on price and transparency.

Let’s ditch reviews for builders

6th June 2019
positive feedback
  • Reviews and stars tell customers little about actual quality or reliability
  • HaMuch.com to start deleting stars and reviews for tradesmen
  • Tradesmen game reviews by offering cash discount for positive feedback
  • HaMuch.com boss says review sites may suffer same fake reviews as TripAdvisor

We have all become used to reading online reviews of tradesmen and tradeswomen before hiring them. But these reviews have now become worthless and should be done away with, says controversial builder-pricing website owner Tarquin Purdie.

Purdie’s HaMuch.com site shows details of how much tradesmen charge in your local area and had previously accepted reviews and stars out of five. These will now be deleted from the website.

Many popular websites who charge builders for job leads offer feedback and a marks system. But Purdie believes that customers can end up being fobbed off with poor tradesmen who game the system. He also believes that good builders who stick to the rules can be punished by unscrupulous homeowners.

“The review system has become a sort of two-way intimidation,” says Purdie. “Builders pressure customers to leave a good review and even offer cash discounts as a part of this. Customers ask tradesmen to include extras, endlessly snag or offer heavy discounts before agreeing to leave good feedback.

“A good tradesman can be ruined by one bad review, but a poor one can just bribe their way to positive feedback. It has become a bad joke. And one that many of these companies profit from. It’s time for homeowners and tradesmen to leave them behind.”

Websites such as TripAdvisor and Yell.com have recently been rocked by claims of fake and paid-for reviews and Purdie believes that the same problems may dog some of the tradesmen review sites. He is now calling for the industry and customers to re-think how they work together in an honest way.

“The review system has become entirely worthless,” says Purdie. “Although tradesmen and women are paying a lot to be a part of it. The problem is that there is no real way of checking that the work has been done, if it is any good and whether bad reviews have been removed at the request of tradesmen, who are the paying customer for review companies.

“To be effective, the system requires a regulator, although I’m not sure these companies would be willing to stump up for that. False reviews are like fake news, but no one is taking any action to either regulate or clean up the sizeable builder review industry. We only welcome builders, plumbers or electricians who are clear and open on price and who are willing to show customers prior work.”

HaMuch.com guide to finding a good builder without review sites

  1. Work out your budget and choose a tradesman who can meet it
  2. Ask to see previous work, preferably in your own neighbourhood
  3. Get a quote from two or three different businesses
  4. Read the small print and check what is included in the price
  5. Ask what guarantees are included and for details of membership of professional bodies

Never mind the rogue builders: Pricing website starts rogue customer list

19th January 2019
builders tools
  • HaMuch.com
    to compile list of debtor customers, complainers and con-men
  • Builders report increase in non-paying
    customers, rogue complainers & cancellations
  • Some customers hire tradesmen with no intention
    of paying quoted price

We are all used to seeing rogue tradesmen on early morning television shows, BBC’s Watchdog and regional news shows, but what these programmes never portray is the number of rogue customers that builders and other trades have to deal with.

Are customer who fail to pay up rogues too?

Building work-pricing website HaMuch.com is now attempting to redress the balance by compiling a list of customers who have failed to pay up, cancelled major jobs at short notice or consistently made unjustified complaints to get significant discounts. This list of nightmare customers will be compiled via feedback from plumbers, electricians, roofers, bricklayers and other tradesmen and tradeswomen who use the unique pricing website, before being made available to trades who sign up for the service.

“For far too long, the emphasis has been on the occasional bad builder,” says HaMuch.com founder Tarquin Purdie. “We hope that this list of bad customers can do something to redress the balance. A small number of customers have no intention of paying a quoted price in full and will pick and pick at work until the tradesman just gives in. It is certainly on the increase. Perhaps the BBC will even commission a show from Matt Allwright called Rogue Customers.”

Keep cost clear to avoid rogue customers

Purdie estimates that his users will have lost tens of thousands of pounds over the years to rogue customers. He cites cases of builders who have had to sue customers who refused to pay for an extension, one who paid for the kitchen but none of the labour to install it and another who cancelled a loft extension on the day work was to start, with all materials purchased. The list will help tradesmen and tradeswomen to avoid customers who are likely to cause them similar problems.

“I founded the site to help clean up the industry and create more transparency,” says Purdie. “We have made labour costs clear for all customers across the UK and we always act when we hear about poor tradesmen. So, this is the next step to creating a fair industry for all. We all need builders, plumbers and carpenters to work on our home and they need us. So these exchanges should always be fair and above board. We think this list will help to achieve that.”

Builders and Plumbers in the southeast 25 times more expensive

16th January 2019

Regional / local: The UK’s cheapest tradesmen are in Birmingham / Nottingham / Nuneaton / Blackwood / Doncaster

  • North-south divide in builder costs as much as £240-per-hour
  • Surrey and London most expensive for tradesmen/women
  • Midlands offers best value to homeowners, according to HaMuch.com

A new data survey by building work pricing site HaMuch.com has revealed the stark differences between the southeast and the rest of the UK when it comes to the cost of building work. The divide appears to be drawn at Watford Gap, with the Midlands offering best value, whilst Surrey and London have the most expensive tradesmen.

The spread of prices for common household jobs across the recently-launched website’s 12,000 tradesmen ranged from £10-per-hour to an incredible £250-per-hour, with builders in Surrey charging as much as 25-times more than their counterparts in Nottingham. Plumbers in Surrey also charged an eye-watering 20-times more than those in Caerphilly. Meanwhile, hiring an electrician in London could cost you £250-per-hour, compared with a bargain basement £10-per-hour in Birmingham. 

The startling prices were uncovered by the data processing team for https://www.hamuch.com as part of their efforts to ensure that homeowners know the cost of jobs up-front. The website lists a labour cost for each tradesman/tradeswoman listed on the service and allows homeowners to search trades in their area by cost, so that no one busts their budget building an extension to having a boiler serviced. So if you are searching ” heating engineer near me “

“We knew there was a wide disparity in charges between the southeast and the rest of the UK, but we were shocked just how wide that was”, says HaMuch.com founder Tarquin Purdie. “The prices show that the market can take a lot in the southeast, whereas rates in parts of the Midlands and north may not have increased for several years. It is certainly something that will make the industry and even government ministers sit up and pay attention.

“We are committed to making sure homeowners and renters alike know the cost of a job before they even approach a plumber or a painter. Not all builders and trades will like it, but we think that the best are only too happy to be honest and up-front on costs.”

The most inexpensive painter and decorator and carpenter both charged £10-per-hour and were in Nuneaton and Doncaster respectively. The most costly were in Brighton and Islington, at £150 and £100. 

The full breakdown of low and high prices is as follows:

Building work: Cheapest, £10-per-hour in Nottingham, East Midlands. Most costly, £250-per-hour in Camberley, Surrey.

Electricians: Cheapest, £10-per-hour in Birmingham, West Midlands. Most costly, £250 in Edgware, London. 

Plumbing:  Cheapest, £10-per-hour in Blackwood, Caerphilly. Most costly, £200-per-hour in Addlestone, Surrey. 

Painting and decorating: Cheapest, £10-per-hour in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Most costly, £150-per-hour in Brighton, East Sussex. 

Carpenters: Cheapest, £10-per-hour in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Most costly, £100 in Islington, London. 

Banish Builder cash-in-hand payments for trades

2nd January 2019
money
  •  HaMuch.com announce New Year’s resolution is no more cash-in-hand for builders
  • Portable card machines have revolutionised payment for tradespeople
  • Does away with the industry’s reputation for tax-dodging

Building work pricing website HaMuch.com is set to put a cat among the building site pigeons by calling time on cash-in-hand payments for plumbers, electricians and bricklayers alike. 

The bundle of used notes was once standard payment for tradesmen, but the website’s founder Tarquin Purdie believes that abandoning cash payments for 2019 will allow builders to fully embrace the 21st century and rescue the industry’s reputation in one fell swoop. He is now calling for home-owners to reject calls for cash payment, even if that comes with a discount.

“It’s not hard to see why builders have traditionally dealt in cash,” says HaMuch.com Managing Director Tarquin Purdie. “They have to buy materials and pay sub-contractors and that was traditionally all done with cash. But now they buy on-account or with credit cards, and their sub-contractors or workers all have bank accounts. Many builders used cash work to stay under the VAT threshold – and I have some sympathy with that for the one-man business – but a good building business should be VAT registered nowadays, withthe accounting wherewithal to deal with that.”

Purdie points to the prevalence of iZettle and other portable card readers among many tradesmen, with modern technology also allowing them to scan receipts and manage their money far better than their forebears. Tradespeople may have been seen as luddites in the past, but they now receive work via smartphone apps, advertise on social media and use WhatsApp to send images to customers. 

“If they are offering you a substantial cash discount, then that is nothing to do with convenience or cashflow,” says Purdie. “HaMuch.com was founded to make pricing clear for customers and builders alike, but we understand some firms may offer a small discount to get the work. However, anyoneoffering as much 10% or 15% cash discount nowadays is asking you to be complicit in tax-avoidance. It is as simple as that. Ask your tradesman for their bank account details, or simply use their card reader.”

Purdie expects the growth of the ‘cashless society’ will see far fewer customers feeling the pressure to pay cash for the likes of plumbing, roofing, glazing or gardening work. Although he recognises that some tradesmen may be reluctant to let go of cash payments.

“There will always be a handful of builders who want to have that roll of fifties to pull out in the pub on a Friday night,” he says. “But more and more home-owners are joining up the dots between that cash discount and how the NHS or local services may miss out on the lost tax money.”

Over 75% of builders have charged extra to homeowners with a ‘posh’ name

17th October 2018
Posh customer with builder
  • Pricing website HaMuch.com survey shows 75.5% have charged customers more when hearing their ‘posh’ name.
  • 81.5% of tradesmen charged more after realising a client lives in a fancy house
  • 79% of builders have charged more when working in an upmarket area

A new survey by tradesman-pricing website HaMuch.com has uncovered bad news for those called Tarquin, Rupert or Quentin, as more than three-quarters of builders admitted to charging them far more than Daves, Mikes and Deans. A slice of class war set in brickwork and cement. 

75.5% of the tradesman questioned said that they have given a higher quote when the customer is a Henrietta, Harriet or Cassandra, with 51.5% saying they have added their ‘posh name tax’ many times. 24% said they had boosted their prices once or twice.

The survey for HaMuch.com, which lets you see labour charges up front for over 12,000 tradesmen and tradeswomen, also revealed that the place where you live could also see you charged more. 

Nearly 8-in-10 of the UK builders, plumbers, carpenters and electricians questioned said that they have upped their prices when quoting for work in what they perceived as an upmarket part of their patch. Meanwhile, 81.5% admitted to having inflated charges when realising the customer lived in a large or fancy house. 

The survey certainly hit home for HaMuch.com founder Tarquin Purdie, who started the site in 2016 to end rip-off pricing and had long-suspected he paid more for jobs around the house than his friends. It allows those searching for someone to work on their home to search by trade, price and area. 

“Being called Tarquin, I have definitely experienced the ‘posh name’ trades surcharge,” says Purdie. “It’s not a big surpriseto me, personally. But our service now means that this can bea thing of the past, as the rates are there in black-and-white for you to compare before you get in touch with a tradesman. Good news for Tarquins and Henriettas everywhere.

“I was genuinely surprised by just how prevalent this over-charging has been, but I hope that more people will now start to research prices up-front and stop themselves being scalped.You will always get unscrupulous tradesmen, but those signing up to our website know that they are setting new industry standards in pricing transparency. It can only be good for builders and customers alike.”

The full survey results.

Have you ever given a customer a higher quote as they have a ‘posh’ name (such as Tarquin or Henrietta)? 

Never 24.5%

Once or twice 24% 

Done it many times 51.5%

Have you ever given a customer a higher quote as they live in what you think of as a ‘posh’ area?

Never 21%

Once or twice 26.5%

Done it many times 52.5%

Have you ever given a customer a higher quote after realising they live in a large/fancy house?

Never 18.5%

Once or twice 25.5%

Done it many times 56%

Sample of 230 tradesmen. 1 October 2018.

Upgrade Your House: Build an Extension

31st July 2018
Building extension

As a home owner you are always looking for ways to improve your property and increase the value of your home. One way to do this is to build an extension to your home. Larger homes are generally more popular and it can be a great way to add value to your property.

Many homeowners agree that the rising costs of houses make it easier to rather spend money on your existing home and improve it, than selling it to find a better property. That’s why you can consider doing an upgrade in terms of an extension.

Popular extensions that homeowners often choose include bathrooms, kitchens, and loft conversions. No wonder the number of planning applications has risen by 25 percent during the last five years. But always keep your budget in mind as you need to do a renovation that you can afford. Get accurate estimates from builders first, before you decide to go ahead.

If you want to build a home extension, keep the following in mind:

  • Call in a professional to get the job done properly. Ask friends for recommendations or visit HaMuch to find a local expert close to you.

  • Make sure that the extension you choose will suit the style of the house. Modern extensions are always desirable but if it’s a very old house, it may not look as appealing and may influence your property value when it comes to selling.

  • Always be realistic. Extra bathrooms and kitchens are often very good choices for family homes and a garage can also add value.

  • Lofts are always a good idea. They add value to a home and allow you to maximise the space you have available, for the whole family to enjoy.

If you are ready to build an extension to your home, start by getting a valuation from an expert to assess what you can do to your home, what space is available, what type of extension you can do, and whether you need additional planning permission.

Visit HaMuch to find a building expert in your area to help you build an extension to your home and add value and functionality to your property.

Upgrade Your House: Turn Your Office Into a Place Where Work Gets Done

31st July 2018
home office

If you want to work from home it’s essential that you ensure you have the right working environment. Designing your home office conversion for productivity is a great benefit and also a great way to add value to your home.

Many people work from home but not everyone has the right space to utilize, which is why you should make the most out of what you have. With a few great tips you can turn even a small working space into a productive environment.

  • First, start by choosing the right space. You may not even realize but you may have plenty of unused spaces that you can turn into an office. This can be a basement or attic, a corner in a spare room, an open place in a hallway, or even an unused closet or alcove. The most important thing to remember is that the space is private.

  • Next, pick a productive colour combination. Some colours are just better than others when it comes to setting a productive mindset. For e.g., yellow is optimistic while blue is soothing. White is neutral while a drop of red can get you energized. Green is one of the best colours and many professionals will agree that it’s perfect for productivity.

  • Lighting can be a great way to make any space look larger than it really is. Choose your lighting carefully as you want natural light that is stimulating, but you can use softer lights as well, such as table lamps, desk laps and standing lamps. Fluorescent lighting may seem like a good option but it’s a bit too harsh and bright.

  • Always consider ergonomics. Consider things like adjustable chairs and ergonomic training to significantly reduce soft-tissue injury over time. It will also increase your productivity. For e.g. when you work on your computer your monitors should be eye level and your elbows should be at right angles. If your body is properly aligned you’ll feel much better while working.

Visit HaMuch to find an expert in your area to assist you with a professional home office conversion where you can be productive and work gets done.