How much value can an open plan kitchen add to your property price

Despite many suggesting that the popularity of open plan kitchens would dwindle after a decade in the spotlight, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

According to Julie Gokce, Senior Designer at More Kitchens, ‘More than 80% of the business’ enquiries continue to centre on open plan living and creating a more multifunctional space within the home’.

The important question is: how do you know if opening up the space is the right choice for you and is it worth the investment?

Answering the myth… does an open plan kitchen add more value to your house?

Some families invest in open plan living as a long-term investment, something they can enjoy now and reap the benefits later down the line when they come to move.

And although the reality is that opening up a kitchen doesn’t add any additional space to a property, according to RealHomes, the average price a UK homeowner will pay for a kitchen renovation was £8,000 in 2021. Unsurprisingly, the kitchen ranked within the top 10 factors homeowners take into consideration when buying a house.

That’s the output, but what’s the impact of that? Well, according to Chancellors, a good kitchen renovation can add up to 15% to the value of a home.

Given the trends, open plan kitchens provide a much more desirable and sought-after living environment and you are far more likely to get much closer to what you are asking for your property if it’s laid out in a way that someone else would also want to live in.

Rome wasn’t built in a day… the truth about kitchen renovation timeframes

A big myth that needs debunking is the timeframe it takes to turn home improvement projects around, with many assuming it can be completed in a few days.

To undertake a conversion properly, you’ve got to put aside a lot of time. For example, while a bathroom conversion will take a couple of weeks, a kitchen can take a little bit longer and is dependent on what the end goal is.

A lot of the projects have a knock-on effect of some building work with walls being taken down and moved – huge changes that take time and need to be done a certain way. We asked Julie for an estimated timeline,

‘I’d say a good kitchen conversion could take four-six weeks. It totally depends on the work being done’.

Don’t forget about legislation

A lot of people are also unaware of current legislation and how things have changed over the past years.

It’s become the most challenging hurdle to overcome when looking at an open plan kitchen, purely because it has the potential to limit a design and may force you to look in a different direction entirely.

However, a lot is achievable compared to what it was 10 years ago. It used to be the case that taking an internal wall out was an absolute doddle and far less complex. But removing a wall that spans the length of the house requires internal support and needs to be done in sections. As a result, sometimes it wasn’t possible to do what you originally wanted.

That’s changed now, but it still has to be done right. These things don’t happen overnight. There’s a lot of work that goes into the background and there’s a lot of costs that go into actually knowing whether it’s possible to do something.

Julie states, ‘It is always our advice to have a professional tradesperson be part of that conversation, rather than trying to take a wall down yourself and potentially adding further costs to the job’.

Final thoughts

Open plan living is a trend that, contrary to other opinions, is not fizzling out. For most households, it is an achievable and cost-effective solution that is turning the kitchen into a place to embrace and adding long-term value to properties.

With the help of a specialist, it can be easy to establish whether an open plan kitchen is a right choice for you and your property. It all comes back to justification and how to make the best use of the space at your disposal.