Dressing a home boosts sale price up to six per cent, say agents

The vast majority of estate agents say dressing a property for sale improves its chances of a sale by leaving a better impression on prospective purchasers viewing it.

It’s been widely recognised that ‘home staging’ - dressing a property left empty by a vendor - improves the chances for sale.

Now a trade association has tried to go someway to quantify the effect.

Between December 2017 and the end of March this year the Home Staging Association invited a random sample of 400 property professionals across the UK, including agents, developers and property managers, to give their observations on the subject. 

Here are the findings:

- 62 per cent of property professionals cited that home staging has great effect on the buyers’ view of the property, followed by 33 per cent that cited it has some effect, and just five per cent that cited that it does not have much effect;

- some 95 per cent said staged homes sell faster than non-staged ones and (unsurprisingly) a full 100 per cent of agents and property developers cited that home staging makes it easier for a buyer to visualise the property as their future home;

- 67 per cent of agents cited that the reception room is the most important room to be staged for sale, followed by 14 per cent saying the kitchen and 14 per cent the master bedroom;

- some 35 per cent of estate agents suggested staging increased the offer value by up to  three per cent but another 35 per cent suggested the increase could be four to six per cent; 

- 76 per cent of those questioned said the seller pays for the staging before listing the property and 67 per cent would expect the seller to hire a staging company - another 19 per cent believed the estate agency would hire a staging company or professional;

- de-cluttering, professional photography and entire house cleaning are the most recommended services to help sell, while 100 per cent of respondents said properties with professional photography get more viewings than the ones with low-quality images.