Are kitchens key to renting a property?

We personally believe a kitchen is a really important selling point when renting a property.  I’m not saying to refurbish your kitchen to the highest...

We personally believe a kitchen is a really important selling point when renting a property. I’m not saying to refurbish your kitchen to the highest standard straight away but if your kitchen is tired and falling to bits then maybe this is an area you might consider.

Since kitchens and bathrooms are always things people look for and can offer that wow factor!

Below is the kitchen we recently refurbished, the clutter doesn’t help but it definitely needed some work.

So the first place to start, especially when you’re an investor is the cheapest kitchen you can find right?

Well I’d say wrong, whenever I go to a restaurant and order a bottle of wine, I don’t order the house but the next one up. Not because I can afford it but because you’ll get more value for money!

We buy our kitchens from Magnet and their basic kitchen is the “Strata” but we go one range up for the “Luna” which is handle less and looks a lot more modern (costs only £150 more).

Nice kitchen hey! We bought and fitted this for £3,950 (excluding plastering and painting).So what did we do on this kitchen to make it look so nice.

1) Wall tiles – we use metro tiles at £16 per sq meter which look great but also protect the walls from all the grime you’d expect.

2) A top tip when fitting tiles don’t skimp on the plastic trims where the tiles meet the wall, for a few more £’s buy chrome – they clean down and last longer! Tenants always paint over and wreck the plastic ones we find.

3) If you look at the picture above and below you’ll probably notice no white goods – supplying cookers, washing machines, dishwashers are just liabilities, you’ll be responsible when they break – So let the tenant provide them!

4) In the bottom picture if you look hard enough, you’ll see we’ve tiled the skirts – why? If you do cheap you do twice, for longevity we always do skirts in wet areas out of tiles. This means you never have to repaint and they last longer due to the associated water risks.

I hope you found this interesting and if you need any help with refurbishing a kitchen or even a whole property don’t hesitate to contact us.