How Does Damp Affect House Prices

How Damp Can Affect House Prices

By Ruth MacEachern

Product Manager

When you are selling your home, you want to get the best possible price, which means ensuring that it is well maintainted and attractive to potential buyers.  Finding and fixing any issues that might reduce the value is wise, and it is useful to think about what might cause a buyer to be unwilling to meet your valuation. There are many factors that can affect the price of a property, and while some of these, such as the location and size cannot be easily changed, factors related to the state of repair of the building can have a significant impact.

When purchasing a property, the buyer conducts a survey that assesses the state of the property and looks at what might affect the valuation. One of the key factors that the survey looks at is whether there is damp in the property.

Damp can come from a variety of sources, and the cost to resolve the issue will vary depending on how established the damp is, and the type of damp that is present.

Different types of damp

There are three main types of damp that can be present in a property:

• Rising Damp
• Penetrating Damp
• Condensation Damp

Rising damp

This is caused when water soaks up into the building from the ground. It can normally be recognised by stains on the lower part of walls. Rising damp needs to be addressed by a builder who will need to add a waterproof damp course membrane into walls. Rising damp can be expensive to resolve and will have a serious impact on house price.

Penetrating damp

Penetrating damp is caused by water entering the building and soaking into the walls. You will often see penetrating damp as brown patches on ceilings or around windows. Causes of penetrating damp include the roof of a house being damaged and allowing rain to leak through, or a split pipe that is leaking behind a wall. Penetrating damp will also need to be repaired, but in most cases, it is a simpler and less costly affair than rising damp.

Condensation Damp

The third type of damp that is common in homes is condensation damp. This is where high levels of moisture in the air have been allowed to form condensation and then soak into porous surfaces. You can normally recognise condensation damp due to mould patches that typically colonise the damp areas.

Condensation damp is the easiest to resolve through the introduction of more effective ventilation to reduce condensation, but it can have a major impact on house value. A house with patches of mould on the walls will not be attractive to buyers, and as a result can lose value. Buyers may be put off by the musty smell and the fear of the health effects of mould.

How to prevent condensation damp

Reducing the humidity levels in your home is the most effective way of preventing condensation damp from developing. Small changes to your behaviour can reduce the amount of water vapour that is released into the air such as ensuring that the kitchen and bathroom doors are closed when in use to reduce condensation, but these will not stop the problem permanently.

In addition to taking steps to reduce condensation, you need to ensure that moisture laden air is removed from your house as quickly as possible. Fitting modern extractor fans in bathrooms and kitchens will reduce the amount of condensation produced in those rooms, but to properly deal with condensation in other rooms, you might want to consider a whole house ventilation solution such as PIV (Positive Input Ventilation).

PIV systems work by displacing humid air with fresh filtered air from outdoors which is drawn into the property through a central unit and then distributed throughout the building. These prevent condensation from developing into damp and mould in all rooms in your home to protect its value.

Find Out More

If you considering selling your home and are worried about the potential impact on its value that condensation damp could have, please contact us today. Our local specialists can visit your home to provide a free home survey that will identify the causes of condensation in your property and provide you with advice about the best course of action including improving your ventilation.