Bad taste Brits losing millions

Sellers are seeing red as a combined £1billion is knocked off the nation’s house prices every year by the wrong interior colour schemes.

New research from Privilege Home Insurance has today revealed that the average home is devalued by £1,392 through poor colour schemes. A third of estate agents would take at least £1,000 off the value of a home if it had an unfavorable interior colour scheme and one in ten would deduct more than £3,000 from the valuation.

The best colour to paint the interior of a home to optimise its sale value is magnolia according to seven out of ten estate agents. However, only 37 per cent of homeowners have magnolia as the primary colour in their homes. This leaves three quarters of a million sellers putting their home on the market with a potentially costly colour scheme.

A red or orange interior is the biggest turn off say estate agents, a faux pas committed by nearly one million homeowners in Britain. And four in ten homeowners do not even consider the implications of using their own favourite colours, rather than a colour that will help sell their homes.

The research also revealed that over half (53 per cent) of homeowners have undertaken DIY to increase the value of their home, with the most popular options being adding a new kitchen or bathroom, building an extension or adding a conservatory.

However, a fifth of homeowners have ended up out of pocket through DIY blunders, with three per cent actually decreasing the value of their homes following bodged repairs.

One estate agent questioned by Privilege Insurance witnessed a devaluing DIY blunder: “One couple had converted their bathroom into another bedroom and then changed one of the fitted wardrobes into a bathroom. In theory it was going to give more space, but it gave a very cramped atmosphere to the property and ended up staying on the market for three months longer than it should have done and it didn’t even reach asking price.”

Andrea Mountford, a leading colour psychologist and interior designer, said: “Not only do we all carry conscious, personal colour preferences, colour also evokes an unconscious response in us all, so you risk “turning off” potential purchasers through the colours you choose in your home. If there is disharmony anywhere in your colour schemes, then the negative psychological properties of your colours are more likely to prevail and your viewer’s unconscious response toward your home is also much more likely to be negative in nature.

“In this lies the secret of magnolia’s success. As a warm, light, off-white colour, it gives a heightened perception of space, and projects cleanliness and optimism, making it very supportive of the psychological mode of potential purchasers who are looking forward to clearing out the old and starting afresh in a new home.”
James Gore, spokesperson for Privilege Insurance, said: “To help people choose the right colour for their home, Privilege has launched colour mood charts – available online at www.privilege.com - to help homeowners identify how different colours can affect people’s moods. As the housing market is very competitive, making internal changes can give homeowners a real competitive advantage when selling their home. However, it’s important to remember that if homeowners are going to make significant changes they also need to inform their insurer, as it may lead to a change to their policy.”