Londoners have increasingly opted for home renovations and extensions in recent years instead of selling their properties. This trend is particularly evident in high-value areas like Fulham, Chelsea, South Kensington, Mayfair, Knightsbridge, and Belgravia. There are several reasons for this shift, highlighting how the market benefits design and build contractors in London.
One significant factor is the current property market conditions. With fluctuating house prices and the considerable costs associated with moving, including stamp duty, legal fees, and the upheaval of relocating, homeowners find extending or renovating their existing homes more economical and less disruptive. This approach avoids the uncertainties and expenses of moving and adds value to their properties.
NU Projects is a London design and build company built around that shift. Architecture, interior design, joinery, project management, renovations, extensions and basements sit in one appointment, so a client deals with one company from the first design through to completion.
That covers obtaining the planning permission and coordinating the structural engineers and the party wall surveyors, which are three of the things homeowners most often find themselves running themselves. Completed work is on our projects page.
The values the studio works to are empathy, honesty and loyalty, which in practice means telling a client what something costs before they commit to it. If you are weighing up moving against improving, tell us about the house and we will price the second option honestly.
Senior people stay on each job here rather than handing it down after the sale, which is what keeps the standard of the work and the standard of the communication in the same place.
In summary, Londoners are renovating and extending rather than selling because the arithmetic of moving has stopped working. That has changed what a design and build company has to be able to do, and it has changed what the better houses on these streets look like inside.
The services page sets out what we cover, and the projects page shows the finished work.
Published 1 January 2024. Written by the NU Projects studio, edited since for house style and accuracy.