The spread should tell you something. Notice also who publishes which end of it. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors puts the figure at approximately 4 percent, while Checkatrade estimates between 10 and 12 percent and some kitchen retailers quote between 5 and 15 percent. The organisations with the least commercial interest in you buying a kitchen consistently quote the lowest numbers.
This guide takes the sceptical view, because a kitchen is a large sum of money and the investment case is routinely oversold. Written from over 20 years of fitting kitchens across Jersey, including for plenty of clients who were about to sell and plenty who were not.
What the numbers actually say
| Source type | Typical figure quoted |
| Surveyors and valuers | Around 4 percent |
| Estate agents | 5 to 10 percent |
| Trade directories | 10 to 12 percent |
| Kitchen retailers | 5 to 15 percent |
The honest reading: the lower figures are more reliable, because the organisations quoting them are not selling kitchens.
Even the 4 percent figure comes with an important qualifier. A new kitchen is thought to add around 4 percent to the price of a property if done well, with some properties seeing closer to 10 percent depending on the type of renovation and the location. The phrase “if done well” is doing a lot of work, and so is the variation by property and location.
The problem with percentage figures
A percentage of your house value is not the same as a return on your spend, and conflating the two is where people go wrong.
Take a property worth £600,000. A 5 percent uplift is £30,000, which sounds excellent against a £30,000 kitchen. But that calculation assumes the kitchen was the only thing holding the value down, and that a buyer would otherwise have paid £570,000.
In practice, three things complicate it:
The baseline matters enormously. If your existing kitchen is functional and presentable, replacing it adds very little, because the property was already achieving its price. The uplift is highest on dated homes where the existing kitchen is the main thing putting buyers off, and lowest on homes where the kitchen was already presentable.
The ceiling price problem. There is little point spending £20,000 on a new kitchen if the property sits in the £200,000 bracket, because you will not see that money back. Equally, a £20,000 kitchen in a £1.5 million house will drag the value down. Every street and every property type has a price ceiling, and no kitchen breaks through it.
Timing. The added cost of a new kitchen may not result in a profitable increase in value overnight, and may even reduce appeal for buyers who want to make their own improvements.
What each level of spend returns
| Project | Typical cost | Realistic return on resale |
| Refresh keeping carcasses | £12,000 to £18,000 | Often the best ratio |
| Replacement, same layout | £20,000 to £40,000 | Moderate, depends on the baseline |
| Full renovation with layout changes | £35,000 to £75,000 | Poor as an investment, good as a home |
The refresh usually wins on resale
If your carcasses are sound and the layout works, replacing doors, worktop, handles and sink transforms how the room presents for a fraction of the cost.
A full new kitchen only outperforms a refurbishment on resale when the existing carcasses are damaged, water-stained or the layout is genuinely poor.
This matters because a buyer walking through does not open your carcasses. They see doors, worktop and whether the room looks cared for. A refresh delivers all three.
Before assuming you need a new kitchen, open a base unit and look. If it is solid, square and dry, you may not. Most people never check.
The replacement is a judgement call
Worth it if the existing kitchen is genuinely tired, water-damaged or visibly cheap. Less worth it if it is simply not to your taste.
The full renovation is not an investment
Moving services, changing the layout, removing a wall. These produce a far better kitchen and rarely return their cost at sale. Do them because you will live in the result, not because of the resale figure.
What buyers actually respond to
Setting aside valuation percentages, there is a separate and more reliable effect: a good kitchen helps a property sell, and sell faster.
What broadens appeal:
- A kitchen that does not need work. The strongest effect is removing an objection rather than adding an attraction. Buyers mentally deduct the cost and hassle of replacing a tired kitchen, and that deduction is usually larger than the actual cost.
- Generous, visible storage, which is the thing buyers most often say is lacking
- A sensible layout that a viewer understands within seconds
- Integrated appliances, which give a cleaner, more finished appearance
- Good natural and task lighting
- Neutral permanent elements, with personality in the easily changed things
What narrows appeal:
- Highly personal colours on permanent cabinetry
- Unusual layouts that only make sense if you cook a particular way
- Very distinctive door profiles or hardware
- Visible signs of a cheap installation, such as wide filler panels, gaps against walls, or doors that no longer hang true
The underlying point: the biggest value effect is not the quality of the kitchen you install. It is the removal of a reason to offer less.
The rule of thumb worth following
A good rule of thumb is not to spend more than 8 percent of your property’s value on a new kitchen.
Some guidance suggests up to 10 percent. Either way, the principle holds: the kitchen budget should be proportionate to the property.
| Property value | Sensible kitchen budget |
| £400,000 | £24,000 to £32,000 |
| £600,000 | £36,000 to £48,000 |
| £800,000 | £48,000 to £64,000 |
| £1,000,000 | £60,000 to £80,000 |
Spend beyond that and you are buying it for yourself, which is a perfectly good reason, just not an investment one. Spend much beyond that purely for resale and the extra rarely returns.
When a new kitchen is genuinely worth doing
Do it if:
- You are staying five years or more and will use the room daily, in which case the question of resale value is secondary to living with it
- The existing kitchen is genuinely failing, with water damage, swollen carcasses or doors that will not hang true
- The layout actively frustrates you every day
- The property is otherwise ready to sell and the kitchen is the one thing letting it down
Think harder if:
- You are selling within a year, since buyers may want to choose their own
- The existing kitchen is functional and merely unfashionable, where a refresh will do more per pound
- You would be spending well above the proportionate band for the property
- The property is likely to be bought for renovation anyway
The Jersey angle
The island market behaves differently from the UK averages these figures are drawn from, and it is worth adjusting your expectations.
Higher property values change the arithmetic. Jersey property prices sit well above the UK average that most of these percentage figures are calculated against. A proportionate kitchen budget is therefore larger in absolute terms, and a quality kitchen is more likely to be expected rather than treated as a bonus.
Limited housing stock affects buyer behaviour. In a market where supply is constrained, buyers have fewer alternatives, which tends to reduce the premium a particular feature commands. A buyer who cannot simply look at ten comparable properties is less able to pay specifically for the kitchen.
Period and granite properties are a category of their own. In cottages, farmhouses and converted outbuildings, buyers are frequently looking for character and sympathetic work rather than a contemporary showpiece. A kitchen that works with the building, with made-to-fit units following uneven walls and period detail respected, reads as care and competence. A standard kitchen with visible filler panels against a bowed granite wall reads as a job done cheaply, and in a property of that type it can actively count against you.
Quality of installation is more visible here. Because so many island properties have uneven walls and sloping floors, the difference between a properly scribed, independently levelled kitchen and a packed-and-filled one is obvious even to a casual viewer. That is a genuine value factor, and it is about the fitting as much as the units.
A caution on figures: Jersey-specific data on kitchen value uplift is not published in the way UK national figures are. Anyone quoting you a precise island percentage is extrapolating. Treat the UK ranges as a guide and talk to a local agent for anything more specific.
How to maximise what you do get back
If resale is part of the reason you are doing this:
- Fix the baseline first. A tired kitchen is the problem. Solving it is where the return sits, and solving it well is a secondary gain.
- Keep the layout conventional, so viewers understand it immediately
- Prioritise storage, which is what buyers notice and comment on
- Keep permanent elements neutral, and put personality into handles, splashback and accessories, which are cheap to change
- Spend proportionately to the property and its street
- Make sure it is fitted properly, because gaps, fillers and badly hung doors undo expensive units
- Consider a refresh instead, particularly if the carcasses are sound
One useful fact: a sprayed bespoke kitchen can be taken back to the workshop and re-sprayed in a different colour for roughly a tenth of replacement cost. If you have a well-built kitchen in a colour that has dated, that is a far better pre-sale move than replacing it.
Frequently asked questions
How much value does a new kitchen add to a house?
Estimates range from around 4 percent according to surveyors to 10 to 15 percent according to kitchen retailers. The lower figures are more reliable. The uplift is largest where the existing kitchen was the main thing putting buyers off, and smallest where it was already presentable.
Do you get your money back on a new kitchen?
Usually not in full, and rarely as a profit. A kitchen typically helps a property sell faster and removes a reason for buyers to offer less, rather than adding value exceeding what it cost. Treat it as improving your home rather than as an investment.
How much should I spend on a kitchen relative to my house value?
A commonly cited rule is no more than 8 percent of the property value, with some guidance extending to 10 percent. Beyond that, the additional spend is for your own benefit rather than for return at sale.
Is it worth replacing a kitchen before selling?
Only if it is genuinely tired or failing. If the carcasses are sound, a refresh replacing doors, worktop and handles achieves most of the visual effect at a fraction of the cost and returns a better ratio.
Does a bigger kitchen add more value than a new one?
Extending can add more, because you are adding floor area rather than finish, but it costs considerably more and brings structural work, building control and knock-on plastering and flooring. The return depends heavily on the property and its ceiling price.
Can a new kitchen reduce my property’s value?
It can reduce appeal if it is highly personal, unusually laid out, or disproportionately expensive for the property. A kitchen that visibly cost more than the house warrants can make a property feel mismatched rather than improved.
Getting started
The most useful first conversation is an honest one about why you are doing it. If the answer is that you will live in the room for the next fifteen years, the valuation question matters far less than whether the kitchen works. If the answer is resale, a refresh is often the better financial move and we will say so.
Davision Interiors Ltd has designed, built, finished and installed kitchens across all parishes of Jersey for over 20 years, from refreshes keeping existing carcasses through to full renovations handled from strip-out to snagging, supplying and fitting worktops alongside the cabinetry, with spray finishing and French polishing carried out in house. Every project starts with a free design and survey visit, all work is covered by our workmanship guarantee, and we are fully insured. Get in touch to arrange a visit and a no-obligation quote.