Jumping into selling a home without further ado can cut into your profit. The reforms help to revalue up to 40%, but some imply a greater investment. If you don’t want to touch your wallet too much, there are a handful of alternatives: interventions without work or the use of decoration. Everything to adjust the home to what the potential buyer wants and place it faster.
“Now the trend is for open-plan spaces, with isolated windows that allow for comfortable teleworking,” says David Chamás, general director in Spain of Huspy, dedicated to real estate services. To achieve that, there are different levels of reforms. Broadly speaking, they are the facelift and the structural intervention – touching the distribution of spaces, adding a bathroom… -. “We have seen cases of value increases of 40% in apartments,” he says. The revaluation is influenced by how the home was, since if it comes from a terrible state, when you put your hand in, more notable increases are achieved.
Before making any decision you have to be realistic and put yourself in the shoes of the potential buyer. Luxury finishes in a suburban neighborhood can ruin the sale by skyrocketing the cost and the buyer not showing up. “The renovation must be adapted to the area in which the apartment is located and the type of buyer it is aimed at. Understand floor by floor what the potential buyer is going to ask for. It is best to get advice and make an initial assessment. Knowing in which parts of the property we can achieve a significant increase can vary greatly floor by floor,” warns Chamás.
A comprehensive renovation of a 90 m² home today costs 35,000 euros without VAT, says Carlos Sanz, general director of Habitissimo, a platform for home renovations and services. It varies depending on the starting situation, the interventions, the materials, the finishes… If the budget is a lot, you can choose to be more selective, where two points stand out in which it is difficult to fail. “In the sales process there are certain reforms that can make a significant difference. We are committed to renovating the bathroom and updating the kitchen as key elements to increase the value of a home,” explains Sanz. Calculate increases of up to 30% in value with specific changes instead of major reforms.
Moving on to specific things, in the kitchen, “the nerve center of the home and the one that wears out the most due to its use”, replacing the countertop, the furniture and updating walls and floors “will allow the value of the property to increase.” But today one of the big trends is to open it to the rest of the house, removing the partition that encloses it. The cost is around 517 euros, he details.
Jumping to the bathroom, the main advice is to replace the bathtub with a shower tray, with an average cost of 1,015 euros. Changing the tiles is another key point. “They can reveal the age of a home,” says Sanz. You can also opt for a double cistern toilet, LED lights and improve storage, another of the most requested things today.
Reforms on the energy front revalue housing, but imply greater investments. Spaniards have become accustomed to continuous scares on electricity and gas bills, so a home with lower consumption attracts more. “A home with an A or B energy efficiency certificate is easier to sell than a D home,” they point out in Habitissimo. Changing the windows ranges from 700 to 4,500 euros, with an average cost of 2,200 euros. The one with thermal bridge, acoustic glass and air chamber are the most sought after, but they increase the cost. If you look at higher investments, aerothermal energy with photovoltaic energy causes the home to revalue by 10%-20%, but the initial expense is high.
For the rest of the house logic prevails. Intervening in the elements that denote the age of the home, such as the walls and floors, is also worthwhile. “There is no worse letter of introduction than walls that are stained or look old, through which time has passed,” highlights Sanz. Painting a house of about 90 m² with plastic paint, the most common, costs about 900 euros.
The leaks, the humidity, must be stopped at the root. Those that are due to filtration are solved with about 100 euros per m², triple that for exterior walls. Those caused by capillarity or condensation are more difficult to eliminate, with costs of between 80 and 120 euros per m². After treating the humidity, it’s time to fill, sand and repaint…
The gotelé has remained in the past. Removing it is around 1,000-1,200 euros for a 90 m² home. Adding a primer and two coats of plastic paint doubles the bill.
On the floors you can opt for a laminate to avoid major works. Doors are a no-work alternative to improve presentation. The dark browns of other times are not worth it. Updating the doors with light colors “will change the perspective and make the house look more modern and spacious,” they explain in Habitissimo.
For tight budgets, you can also use lighting tricks: translucent curtains, white walls and mirrors in strategic areas. “Good lighting can make your house seem more welcoming and spacious,” they point out in Huspy.
If the house is small, magic cannot be done, but you can gain a few square meters by building storage spaces with built-in wardrobes, such as in a stairwell or between two pillars.
A last option if you do not want to make large outlays, or cannot, is to style the home with home staging. Through decoration, changing furniture and coverings, the rooms are given a facelift, erasing personal traces. “Decorating in an attractive style, with a neutral color palette, will allow buyers to visualize themselves in the house, and this is facilitated by reducing the presence of personal elements,” explains Huspy.
