5th January 2015
Add natural light, add value to your home
When it comes to increasing the value of your property, there is always an abundance of opinions on what you can do.
A recent survey1 of second and third home buyers cited natural light as a key priority in terms of property investment, indicating that experienced home buyers recognise natural light as a key consideration when assessing a home’s worth.
Highlighting the importance of natural light to the resale value of a house, the research showed that over 80% of survey respondents were prepared to spend up to $5,000 to ensure their new property was built with natural light as a priority and 17% of respondents were willing to spend more than $5,000 on additional means to enhance their home’s access to natural light.
Good home design is crucial to ensure maximum natural light throughout the year and the right size windows in the correct place with suitable glazing is the key to achieving this.
For homeowners renovating current living spaces, modification of existing under-glazed dwellings to lift appeal and resale value can be more difficult but not impossible. In this case, remedial strategies can help assist such as:
1. [Display Villages Report, June 2014 by Lonergan Research on behalf of CSR. The research was sourced from a selection of second and third home buyers surveyed at three key Display Villages in Sydney in June 2014]? The Living Space is brought to you by Viridian New World Glass.
- Trim large trees that block windows in the home – you will need to check with your local council about the rules for your area.
- Install glazed skylights or canopies.
- Enlarge existing windows or reglaze existing windows with high performance glass to allow your windows to be decluttered of curtains, blinds and other obstacles that prevent the light getting in.
- Do not block light with furniture in front of the window.
- Use white or light colours throughout a room to reflect the natural light that comes in.
- Adding mirrors across from a window will help reflect the natural light into different parts of the room.
1. [Display Villages Report, June 2014 by Lonergan Research on behalf of CSR. The research was sourced from a selection of second and third home buyers surveyed at three key Display Villages in Sydney in June 2014]? The Living Space is brought to you by Viridian New World Glass.