Buyers turn to demolition to boost property potential - research

The number of homes being demolished and rebuilt from scratch has increased by 3.7% over the past year, research reveals.

The analysis by GetAgent suggests homeowners are looking to rebuild rather than move to a new-build, saving themselves £70,000 in the process.

GetAgent analysed data on the number of property demolitions seen across England, the cost of rebuilding a property from scratch and how this compares to the cost of buying a brand new home in the current market. 

The figures show that over the past decade, demolitions have become a far less common practice. Last year, just 5,680 homes were demolished across England, a 62% drop versus 10 years ago. 

However, this number has increased over the past year, up 4% between 2020/21 and 2021/22, compared with a 34% annual reduction seen the previous year. 

This increase has been driven by the North East, where there has been a 240% increase in properties being demolished in the past year alone, with London (+138%) also seeing a huge year on year jump. 

GetAgent suggests buyers who can afford to demolish and rebuild a property are attracted by the costs being cheaper than a new build. 
 

The average new-build property will set you back £421,005 in England, having increased by 14% in the last year - a jump of £51,292, according to GetAgent.

Meanwhile, the cost of pulling down a house is estimated to sit at £32,000, while rebuild costs for a three bed semi detached home sit at £295,778. Although this cost has increased by 21.3% over the last year (£51,889), it remains significantly cheaper than looking to buy a new-build in the current market at a total of £327,778, the research suggests.

This means that homeowners are able to not only increase the potential size of their property, but upgrade it to a brand new home in the process, while still saving a considerable sum of money. 

Colby Short, chief executive of GetAgent, said:“Demolishing your home and starting from scratch may seem like a daunting, expensive task and the cost of doing so will certainly depend on a number of factors such as size, location, professional trade requirements and so on. Not to mention the fact that you will be effectively homeless for a period of time which can cause a great deal of inconvenience.

“However, for those with the ambition to tackle such a project, it could pay dividends in the long run. 

While the cost of rebuilding a home has climbed at a similar rate to the price of the average new-build home over the last year, the overall cost of doing so does come in significantly cheaper than the cost of buying new.

“This is no doubt a contributing factor to the uptick in demolitions over the last year, with many homeowners simply unable to take the next step up the ladder due to the pandemic boom in house prices.”