Member Article

New homeowners in the North East spend £6,675 making their house a home

• Installing a new bathroom or kitchen is undertaken by 33% of people to make their house feel like their home

• 17% of new home owners spend over £10,000 in the North East

• One in three people take over 50 days to feel at home

4 December 2014: Homeowners in the North East spend an average of £6,675 to make their house feel like a home according to research from Barratt Homes, over £1,000 more than the national average of £5,462. Installing a new kitchen, upgrading the bathroom, or altering the layout were improvements undertaken by 41% of new buyers in the process of making a home their own.

With these stamps of personalisation often requiring building, decoration or settling in time, one in nine only felt at home after 50 days, while a further one in five took over three months to feel at home after moving in.

Decorating to personal tastes also plays a big part in helping people settle in, with the lounge being the priority room to personalise (51%) followed by the bedroom (20%). This all comes at a cost, with 17% of recent home owners spending over £10,000 to turn the property into somewhere they can comfortably call their home.

Moving in milestones Key moments that help make a house feel like a home: 1. Putting up photos (35%) 2. When the house feels lived in by the whole family (20%) 3. Familiar smells (18%) 4. When a letter arrives with their new address on (11%) 5. Once they’ve hosted their first Christmas (7%)

How to fast-track making a house a home After the stresses and strains of moving home, XX from Barratt Homes shares their top tips on how to fast-track the process of making a new property feel homely:

1. Adorn the walls with personal belongings that mean something significant to you – it’s important to have old memories in your new surroundings 2. Establish family rituals e.g. Saturday night film night complete with popcorn and treats 3. Consider a new build home, the clean blank canvas can fast-track making it feel like home and eliminate expensive DIY or home improvement jobs as everything is already new 4. Spend as much time as possible in your home, become accustomed to its quirks, sounds, smells and how it feels 5. Invite friends and family over - bring fun and familiar people into your new surroundings to begin creating new memories

Kate Fox, Social Issues Research Centre, commented, “Making a property feel like a home is really important to establish an emotional connection with your house or flat, and it’s a shame to see that this is an expensive and timely process for many recent home owners – making what should be an exciting and special time much more stressful. Prospective buyers should ensure they have considered this aspect before choosing the type of property they want to move into.”

Fenton Hewitt, Sales Director at Barratt Developments North East, added: “The research today highlights that making a house a home can be a costly and time consuming process for many home owners. It’s particularly interesting to see that almost half of recent home buyers are making alterations to the layout and refurbishing old kitchens and bathrooms. For those that are keen to avoid this it is certainly worth considering a new build, which eliminates this obstacle and ensures you don’t have to spend a large additional chunk of money on top of purchase price. In addition, new builds provide new owners with a blank canvas they can personalise as they like, helping to make it feel like home from the offset.”

For more information, tips and hints to help navigate the house buying process visit http://www.barratthomes.co.uk/hometruths

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Richard Savage .