Talworth Street Redevelopment Case Study

The Property

Situated in an ideal location for Cardiff students, the house was a large four-bed let spread over three floors when purchased, bringing in £1,300 per month (4 x £325).

The four bedrooms - one on the ground floor, two on the first floor and one in the attic - were all good sizes, but some were far bigger than others, which can make for arguments when prospective tenants decide who’s going to occupy each room. So much so, it can put groups off taking a house. 

The Idea

Such is the demand for them in the area, we advised the landlady to add a bedroom to create a five-bed let - which was easily achievable given the size of the rooms and layout of the house.

The Project

The work required to add the extra bedroom was all done on the first floor.

At the front of the house was a huge, 18.5m² bedroom, providing us with ample space to split it in two and gain our extra bedroom. While the minimum legal limit for a bedroom is 6.5m², we always suggest at least 9m² for a comfortable living and storage space, so after losing 0.5m² for a stud wall between the two, we had two bedrooms of equal size; both 9m².

The creation of these two bedrooms meant we needed a small corridor leading to them – the space for which we were able to borrow from the floor’s middle bedroom. All in all, we ended up with three bedrooms of similar size – 2 x 9m² at the front and 1 x 9.5m² in the middle.

At the rear of the floor was a big bathroom, which  we changed to house two shower rooms (both with sink and toilet) – thereby satisfying Cardiff Council HMO licensing regulations – and a utility room.

We left the layout of the ground floor untouched, which is a lounge at the front, a bedroom in the middle and kitchen at the back. The one bedroom in the attic also remains.

The work required to create the extra room, which included stud work and additional electrics, fire doors, plug sockets and plaster etc., came to £1,500. The cost of the two shower rooms and utility room was £6,000, meaning the project totalled £7,500 in all.

Results

The 'before' and 'after' floorplans below show the extent of the work done to the first floor layout.

With the extra bedroom, the house now brings in £1,500 per month (5 x £300) - an extra £2,500 per year.