{"id":981995,"date":"2026-05-24T14:37:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/981995\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T14:37:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T14:37:36","slug":"we-added-250k-to-the-value-of-our-1950s-stockport-house-this-is-how-we-did-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/981995\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We added \u00a3250k to the value of our 1950s Stockport house – this is how we did it’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple added an impressive \u00a3250,000 to the value of their home after taking on a full back-to-brick renovation. Isaac, 27, from Bolton<\/a> and Benji, 31, from Prestwich<\/a>, bought their first home together in Bramhall<\/a>, Stockport<\/a> back in November 2024 when they were 26 and 29.<\/p>\n

The pair set their sights on transforming<\/a> the 1950s property<\/a>, which they bought for \u00a3728,500 with a budget of just \u00a3100,000. Despite exceeding their budget by \u00a360,000, Isaac and Benji managed to turn the dated four-bed house into a modern five-bed family home in less than a year – and estimate that they increased its value by \u00a3250,000.<\/p>\n

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Isaac spoke to the Manchester Evening News as part of our Where I Live<\/a> series. Each week we speak to a different homeowner who lives in the north west to hear all about their home-buying and renovation journey as we take a look inside their home.<\/p>\n

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The kitchen before Isaac and Benji began renovating(Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Isaac got on the property ladder when he was 21 after buying a home during lockdown, which he lived in for four years. Meanwhile, Benji bought his first house at 27 which he lived in for two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the main thing that helped us get to where we are is that we both had our own houses first,” Isaac told the M.E.N. “I made a lot of money on my first house. I bought it in Covid and then sold it four years later for \u00a3100k more. I bought at the top of my budget but it paid off and it meant that we had a load of equity that we could use to buy together.”<\/p>\n

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What the living room looked like when the couple bought the home(Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n

The couple, who have been together for three and a half years and recently got married, both sold their homes to buy a property together. \u201cBenji works in Altrincham<\/a> and I work in Manchester so we wanted somewhere that was easily commutable for us both. We looked in Cheadle<\/a>, Bramhall<\/a>, Wilmslow<\/a> and then over in Altrincham,” Isaac said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were looking for somewhere that we could renovate, we always knew we wanted to do that. We wanted a detached with a good size garden and enough space downstairs, that was the main priority for us. We wanted at least four bedrooms but having a large, sociable living space was what we were looking for. We also wanted to be in a nice location close to a village.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They took the entire property back to its bones(Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n

Despite never renovating<\/a> before, the pair wanted a property that they could put their own stamp on. \u201cMy last house had just been renovated by the previous owner, so I didn’t get to choose anything. I’ve always loved watching Grand Designs and renovation programmes so I’ve always wanted to do my own thing,” Isaac said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t looking for a long term home. Our aim is to build our own house one day, so we wanted somewhere we could stay in for maybe five to 10 years and then move on.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The new open-plan kitchen dining area (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

The couple viewed 12 houses with a mix of new builds and older properties. “There were only a few new builds that were suitable in terms of where we were looking for, but they didn’t give enough flexibility. Then when we looked at some older houses but they weren’t for us,” said Isaac.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually didn’t want this house originally. I had seen it go up for sale but it was on a main road and I didn’t want to live on a main road, so I dismissed it because I was conscious of parking. But then one weekend we walked past it, we both stood outside, looked at each other and said \u2018this is the house\u2019. We went to view it the following week and bought it that same week. It was on the market for \u00a3750,000 and we bought it for \u00a3728,500.”<\/p>\n

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The couple estimate they’ve added \u00a3250,000 in value to the property(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

The 1950s four-bed detached house in Bramhall<\/a> was ‘perfectly liveable’, but the couple knew exactly what they wanted to do to it to improve it and make it their own. “An elderly lady in her 70s lived there and she’d done some work on it – she had new bathrooms, new windows and it was absolutely fine to most people, but the layout was really old-fashioned,” Isaac said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d already planned most of the renovation work before we even completed on it. I’d drawn stuff out and worked out where I wanted things to go and what was suitable. We didn’t want to buy it and then find out we couldn’t do what we wanted. So I spoke to a builder before we bought it to check things were possible and they were.”<\/p>\n

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The couple’s sleek renovated kitchen(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

After getting the keys to their home, Isaac and Benji spent months stripping back all the walls and ceilings as the entire house was ‘covered in wallpaper’. The couple lived in the house during the full renovation and had a team of builders in to carry out the extensive work. “We took the whole house back to brick and completely transformed it,” Isaac said. “It was virtually unliveable whilst we were renovating it. We did everything at once, so we lived in one room whilst the others were being done which was very difficult.”<\/p>\n

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The gorgeous green dining room(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Talking us through the full renovation, Isaac explained: “We moved the front door which then created a new office and a new hallway. We divided the lounge into two different rooms and then knocked down quite a lot of walls in the kitchen area to make it an open-plan living dining space. We then added a brand new en-suite in one of the big bedrooms.<\/p>\n

“There was already a loft conversion but it was quite poor because the stairs were in one of the bedrooms, so we built a new dormer above the current stairs and then turned those old stairs into proper stairs that went into a fifth bedroom. We basically had the whole house redecorated, replastered, had a few new windows put in and new bi-folds.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The living room has been transformed(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

In less than a year, the pair created what is now a stunning five-bedroom, three-bathroom home with four reception rooms and a large open-plan kitchen dining area. “We started in May last year and most of it was done by the end of July. The builders did most of the work in the first five weeks as they worked seven days a week,” said Isaac.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say our home is minimalistic but we also like colour drenching with neutral and earthy tones. We’ve got a lot of green, cream and beige colours.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One of five bedrooms(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

After spending around \u00a3160,000 on the renovation, Isaac estimates that their property is now worth around \u00a31 million. “Looking at what\u2019s on the market nearby, I know we\u2019ve made our money back at least. We bought it for \u00a3728,500 and I guess it is now worth between \u00a3950k and \u00a31 million, based on other houses the same size and condition in the same location,” he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking of their future plans, Isaac said: \u201cI think we’ve done everything that we wanted to do with this house. Our plan was always to do everything in one go, we didn’t want to do it in phases. We spent more at once knowing it was all going to be done.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The new bathroom(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Isaac added: \u201cI’d say from now we\u2019ll maybe stay here for five years. I think we\u2019ll probably need to do a few more renovations to build up equity before we can build our own home. Next time though we will move out whilst renovating. We didn’t know how hard it would be to live in it and we didn’t know how much things would cost, so we\u2019d definitely factor in the cost of renting somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would you like to feature your home and share your journey in our Where I Live series? If so, p<\/strong>lease send your details to phoebe.jobling@reachplc.com<\/a> with the subject line ‘Where I Live’.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The couple’s beautiful garden(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A couple added an impressive \u00a3250,000 to the value of their home after taking on a full back-to-brick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":981996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[2919,748,393,4884,42532,1269,2465,11653,10003,16,15,185318,167923],"class_list":["post-981995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-bramhall","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-home-design-diy","tag-house-prices","tag-manchester","tag-premium","tag-property-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unmissable","tag-where-i-live"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116630065698682250","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/981996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}