This week my builder quoted me for a new kitchen in one of my buy to let rentals. It’s a typical small rental property, for our purposes a small terraced house, and the quote was for new units, sink and taps, all fitted.
But the thing I’ve realised recently is that rather than ripping everything out and starting again, if I keep the existing carcasses and just replace the doors, the oven and a hob, then the cost will be at least a third less.
Now I’m not going to give you the actual figures, because I know you probably won’t believe me. I’ll tell you why so many people have trouble believing it in a moment, but that’s really the nub of the problem. That disbelief is why so many investors spend far more than they need to on a typical refurb.
Why people don’t believe the figures
Why don’t people believe me when I tell them how much it costs me to do a kitchen in one of my rental properties? Well, I think there are two reasons.
The first is that when people picture a kitchen in their mind, they’re picturing their own kitchen. They may have an island, the quartz worktops, the handleless doors, and they price my quote against what they think it would cost to do their kitchen.
The second reason is that in my world, the model I use, a rental property that gives a decent return is more or less by definition a cheaper property. And a cheaper property usually means a smaller property, and a smaller property usually means a smaller kitchen. So when it comes to fitting a kitchen, there’s less of it to buy and less of it to fit.
And in any case, while still producing a good quality rental property, the specification of a kitchen in a rental is going to be less than the specification of a kitchen in, say, a property aimed at a flip for the first time buyer market. Tenants want somewhere clean, functional, comfortable and well finished, but they’re not going to pay more rent for the fancy version. So if you’re starting from the wrong picture, the figures do sound impossible, when actually what you should be looking at is a smaller kitchen to a different specification.
The way we used to do it
So I’ve started doing things differently now. For this particular property the tenants had been in there for many years, and when they finally left it needed a substantial refurb. And in the old days my managing agent would go around with the builder and they’d price it on the basis of pretty much ripping everything out, the kitchen, the bathroom, putting the whole lot in a skip and starting again.
But I realised not so long ago that this was not only filling up landfill, which in this day and age I feel very uncomfortable about, it was also costing me money which I probably didn’t need to spend. So instead of just assuming that the kitchen and the bathroom had to come out, I asked them to have a good look and see whether they could be salvaged, or at least adapted.
The kitchen
Now just think about the kitchen, for example. I’m not talking about putting up with poor quality, and I wasn’t suggesting that we skimp unnecessarily, but I’d begun to realise that we were ripping out kitchens where the carcasses were actually fine. A new worktop, a new sink unit and a new splashback would make a massive difference, and if necessary, sometimes maybe new doors, or new door handles and drawer handles.
And that’s the reason for the difference in the two quotes I received this week. As the carcasses are sound, all I need to do is replace the doors and the appliances. Of course, if they weren’t, I’d replace the whole thing. But the difference in price is roughly about a third, and all I’ve done is ask my managing agent and builder to look properly at what’s already there before deciding what has to go.
Now of course, if the carcasses were all buckled or broken, then yes, I’d rip them out and put in something off the shelf, all fitted by my builder on a day rate, because there’s no point dressing up something that’s past it.
The bathroom
And it’s the same story with the bathroom. Rather than ripping out the whole bathroom suite, if it’s still in good condition, then why put it in a skip? In my experience of doing refurbs over the last thirty or so years, what is often the case is it’s not so much the bathroom suite, although it can be, and if it is then I’ll replace it. But if it isn’t the suite, what it usually is is things like the tiling, which is dated, with mouldy grout, and all needs to come off.
So for this particular property, the steel bath that we put in at the original refurb was still in good condition. It only needed a new bath panel, which had split, and some new taps, which included an over bath shower on a shower bar in nice stainless steel, which looks very smart. The basin and the toilet were fine, so they stayed. And where it’s tiled, the tiles are coming off and we’re going to fit acrylic wall panels, which can look very smart and are very easy to maintain. They just need an occasional wipe, and they’re not prone to the mould you can get between tiles on grout.
How I know it works
Now I know this works because a little while ago, about three months ago, I did the identical thing in another property, which I then sold on to another investor. And while the solicitors were doing the things that solicitors do before completion, the other investor asked me to let the property out before they bought it, which I had no hesitation in doing, because if the sale had fallen through I’d have wanted it let anyway. Plus, of course, I got a little bit of extra rent before completion, rather than just sitting there with a vacant property.
So I let it to another tenant, and it let very quickly. And I’m convinced that was because, although I hadn’t put in a whole new kitchen, the new worktop and sink unit and splashback made it look very smart, and with the new panelling and taps in the bathroom the specification of the flat was very good. It satisfied the tenant and it satisfied the buyer, and in that instance the saving was roughly about half of what I would have paid if I’d put in a new bathroom and a new kitchen and let my builder rip everything out and put it in the dreaded skip.
My recommendation
So my recommendation is this. Before you get quotes, do have a proper look at what you’re actually dealing with. Have a look at what’s already there, because very often we end up doing things we really don’t need to do, and in this day and age, when you want every penny you spend to count, you’ll be surprised at just how much you can save through selective modernisation and refurbishment, rather than through wholesale destruction and then starting again.
Here’s to successful property renovating.
Peter Jones
Author, property investor and ex-Chartered Surveyor
P.S By the way, I’ve completely rewritten and updated my course for 2026, The Successful Property Renovator’s Workshop — a comprehensive guide to renovating properties properly and profitably, based on my own experience across well over 150 projects over thirty years.
thepropertyteacher.co.uk/the-successful-property-renovators-workshop
