News - Parents’ DIY skills boost house prices

British parents have used their Renovation skills to add £33bn to the value of their children’s homes over the past five years, a survey claimed today.

Mums and dads have donated an average of eight days’ labour to their offspring since 2001, with 30% of those questioned admitting they would ask their parents for help to avoid paying for work to be done, Halifax Home Insurance said.

The company said that as a nation parents had donated 167m days in total, saving their children £14bn in labour costs.

Parents were most likely to get a call from offspring aged between 18-24, with 84% of that group saying they had drafted in their mums and dads to help with home improvements in the past five years.

Perhaps surprisingly, one in five 55-64-year-olds said they had turned to their mum or dad for assistance.

Almost half (43%) of those surveyed said they asked their families to help because they didn’t have the skills to do the work themselves, a figure that increased to 53% among 18-35-year-olds.

Only 31% of this age group rated their renovation skills as being better than their parents’, compared with 42% of 35-54-year-olds and 63% of over 55s.

Despite a lack of skills being revealed as the top reason for people to bring in their mum and dad, most of the jobs they gave them were pretty straightforward.

The top parental task was painting and wallpapering, followed by gardening, general renovation and building furniture.

On average these jobs added £2,390 to the value of the property, or a total of £33.4bn across the nation as a whole, the insurer said.

Martyn Foulds, senior claims manager at Halifax Home Insurance, said: “It’s no secret that, if done well, even basic cosmetic tasks such as redecorating can add significant value to a property.

“It would be great to see more young people taking an interest in renovation as their parents won’t always be able to help them out. Being able to complete even simple tasks alone can save money.”
source: Guardian

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