There’s a growing sentiment among homeowners renovating their houses with their targets purely based on resale, with no current plans to sell their homes. This leads many homeowners with stark white kitchens, neutral tiles and plain living spaces, devoid of any personality or anything they actually love, that they have to live in for the next 10 years.

The core of this growing trend stems from homeowners renovating for imaginary buyers, who may never exist, or may even enjoy minimalism. This results in unhappy homeowners and potential buyers, leading many to question why they are building for resale, rather than for themselves. Your home should be your sanctuary first and serve your daily habits and joy rather than a future listing photo.

If this hasn’t persuaded you to put yourself first, then this blog aims to explore more reasons why you should build your home around you and not a future buyer.

Where the resale obsession comes from

Resale-driven renovation advice has become widely accepted in recent years, largely because of media and real estate blogs pushing the narrative that your home is an investment and not just a place to live. This, alongside TV renovation programmes that often show stark and soulless, are met with success, making home owners worried about their current property and look towards future proofing their home for future buyers. The general media pushing the resale sentiment has reached the everyday household, instilling fear and causing questions such as: What if this choice hurts the value? This anxiety pushes homeowners towards neutral and generic designs for their home, which they plan on staying in for years and may not even resell.

How renovating for resale can backfire

When homeowners are choosing for future buyers, they can make compromises that can affect everyday life and their comfort level in their own home. This can cause many problems, such as choosing trends that they don’t love and don’t fit into their personal style and removing functional features that they use every day for the sake of aesthetics, leaving many homeowners with a house that looks good but is uncomfortable and impractical to live in. This can have a toll, making owners feel unwelcome in their own space and often feeling inconvenienced. All of these adjustments may not even pay off, either, with generic renovations rarely creating standout value.

What does building for how you live really mean

There’s a different way that you can renovate to put your life first, called lifestyle-first renovation. An example of this is designing your kitchen around how you cook, such as making more counter space if you cook every day or adding an extension that you need, such as a conservatory conversion as a work-from-home space. Once your space reflects your household’s needs and habits, living becomes easier and more enjoyable. After all, it’s futile to create a smaller living room and a larger kitchen if you spend a lot of time as a family watching TV.

A smarter way to balance living and value

Designing for yourself doesn’t mean ignoring value altogether; it means being international about it. Invest in quality where it counts, such as solid construction, good layouts and skilled workmanship. If you want to make personal choices such as colour and lighting, ensure that they can be changed easily or hold up over time, for when you do want to sell. And most importantly, the renovation rules that don’t match your values and living situation, so you can live easily and comfortably in your own home.

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