If you own a commercial property, such as offices, warehouses or industrial units, you might be looking at ways to increase its value, either for re-sale or so you can demonstrate a higher value to your tenants.
When it comes to increasing the value of your commercial property, you can look at it in two ways:
- Make improvements
- Make savings
Let’s break it down…
Improving your commercial property to increase its value
EPC
From April 2023, in England and Wales, commercial properties are required to have an EPC rating of C or above for new contracts, and a rating of B from 2030. It therefore stands to reason that making improvements to your EPC will increase the value of your commercial property. Here’s how refurbishment can help:
- Upgrade your lighting to LED and install occupancy sensing lighting controls
- Ensure the roof and wall insulation is sufficient
- Install energy efficient heating with occupancy sensing controls
- Retain documents that detail any improvements you have made.
Strategic improvements
Strategic improvements refer to making the space useable by a varied client base. Tenants are more likely to be happier and therefore stay longer in a rented commercial space that provides a sense of community:
- Ensure plenty of space for relaxation and ‘switch-off’ time
- Make the public, functional spaces comfortable by adding good lighting, flooring and wall coverings or art
- Provide quiet work areas for those times when background noise is distracting or interruptive
- Install enough power points, phone points and internet connection points in the floors and walls to allow for the reconfiguration of furniture
- Make sure it’s warm! New doors and windows, insulation and energy efficient heating are essential.
Save money with refurbishment
We’ve covered plenty in the above sections, and many of those tactics will also go towards saving money, through things like reducing heat loss and installing energy efficient lighting. Could you go one step further and install heat pumps or solar panels too?
All these improvements will make your tenants feel more comfortable in their workplace, and improving your EPC could make you a better prospect for mortgages and grants as well.
So, the quick answer is, YES! Refurbishing your commercial property can increase the value.
If you’d like to talk about your ideas, or specific improvements you’d like to make in your commercial property, get in touch with us.
