Any estate agents out there?

[fairy!]

I have a terraced victorian house with 2 downstairs reception rooms. Will I de-value the house by knocking through to create one large reception room?

[noxlumos]

I'm not an estate agent but I am a property developer and it's something that I think would be desireable on the whole, depending obviously upon the size of rooms in the first place.

[fairy!]

So you think knocking through would be a good thing? Neither room is small at the mo, don't know actual measurements... would just personally prefer it open plan, as one room tends to get ignored at the mo... but don't want to spend money doing something that will de-value the house.

[smurfchops]

Open plan is very desirable at the moment, especially open plan incorporating a kitchen. Can you knock down one wall to incorporate the kitchen to make it a kitchen / dinner / possibly TV /family room, and leave the other room as a separate sitting room?

[hybridlab]

Open plan has been popular for years now but thankfully slowing down and more and more people prefer having the option to close rooms off from one another as long as rooms are large enough. Any room that is attached to a kitchen will suffer from smells if it is permanently open. Noise from applicances can be annoying if the attached room to the kitchen is an area where people spend time so take this into consideration.

Back to your question though. If you are developing and know you are going to move then devalueing is more of an issue than if you had no plans to move. A property im developing right now has one door between the 2 reception rooms but previously had a archway with rooms for double doors. I will be knocking through but not entirely, making sure that the 2 dors can be fully opened to give an open feel and the option to close off.

One final point and probably my main point, Putting stud walls back in place and plastering them is not an expensive job and any buyers should be made aware of that if they dont like open plan living space

Mike