Removing hallway wall - negative value impact?

[ChrisHatcham]

Hi everyone, This is my first post on here. I've only been a home owner for 2 years now and do limited DIY myself. I'm looking for peoples thoughts on some renovations my wife and I are considering.

Our house is a victorian terrace in South London. The living room and hallway is in desperate need of renovation. Instead of just repainting and reflooring we are considering removing the hallway wall to open up the space.

The house has double glazing and gas central heating throughout so warmth is not a problem.

I'm Australian and my wife is South Africa so we are used to houses that open into a living space, however I don't think this is very common in the UK.

The main question I have is do you think removing the hallway wall will have a negative impact on the property value? Obviously we would like the value to improve, but if it makes no difference to the value we will likely go ahead with the wall removal to improve the space for our own benefit. If it decreases the property value then I guess we will leave it in place.

I have attached a floorplan mockup to give you a better idea.

Untitled

• ChrisHatcham
• 10 May 2013
• 1

 

[kbdiy]

I think it's very much down to personal choice, which will also be the case when you eventually decide to sell.

My personal preference is to at least have some kind of separation so that if needed you can achieve a little privacy from each other, perhaps doing a bit of working from home or some such. Also I always like to have some separation between the main entrance door and the living space - if you can imagine opening the front door to callers in the depths of winter and the icy blast that invades the whole living space if the separation isn't there, so a small lobby or enclosed porch that prevents cold entering directly into the lounge.

 

[jay679]

Exactly! its not often in Australia or SA you open the door in the main living space to either -10 temps, snow, or freezing rain!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I would go out of my way to avoid buying a house that opened up into the living room. I think you're bonkers.

 

[OwainDIYer]

I'd open up the rear room to the rear hall but keep the front hall as a separate space between the front door and the room.

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