Paint Is the Cheapest Renovation That Changes Everything

Kitchens cost thousands. Bathrooms cost more. Paint costs a few hundred pounds and changes how a property is judged the second someone walks through the door. It's the single highest-leverage move in any void turnaround, and it's routinely treated as an afterthought.

The Numbers Make the Case on Their Own

Industry research on interior repainting puts the return on investment at around 107% — meaning a well-executed paint job typically returns more than it costs, before you even factor in faster turnaround. Dulux Weathershield's research found that a fresh coat can lift a property's perceived value by close to a quarter, with roughly a third of buyers expecting to pay 25% more for a freshly painted home over a tired one. Some industry estimates put ROI on paint as high as 100–300%, making it one of the few property interventions where the return reliably outpaces the spend.

None of this is about vanity. It's about how fast a property fills and how it's perceived the moment someone sees it.

Why Walls Decide Everything Before Anyone Says a Word

Walls are the largest surface in any room, so their condition sets the tone before layout, light, or anything else registers. In London specifically, heavier tenant turnover and older housing stock make poor paintwork more visible and more damaging to first impressions than in most other UK markets — tenants and viewers are comparing more properties, faster, and unfinished walls read as unfinished maintenance across the board.

Estate agents overwhelmingly act on this: the majority recommend painting before a property goes to market, specifically because it changes buyer and tenant perception more than almost anything else at the same price point. For a person moving into a new tenancy after homelessness or an unstable housing situation, that same first impression isn't about resale value — it's about whether the property feels like a genuine fresh start or somewhere temporary that's merely been cleared out.

Touch-Ups vs. Full Repaints — Know Which One You're Paying For

Touch-ups are right when walls are structurally sound, paint mostly intact, and only scattered scuffs or marks are present. Fast, cheap, often done in a single visit. Full repaints are needed when there is significant discolouration, multiple affected rooms, or a previous tenant's colour choices that actively work against the space — dark or bold colours shrink how a room reads and limit its appeal to the next occupant.

Get this wrong in either direction and you either overpay for a repaint that wasn't needed, or under-deliver a property that still reads as tired.

Why We Build It In as Standard

At Homes We Make, painting and touch-ups happen before furnishing goes in — not as an add-on someone has to remember to request. It's the smallest line item in the process and the one with the most disproportionate return, in both perception and turnaround speed.

If painting is currently a separate contractor and a separate delay in your void process, we'd be glad to talk through folding it into a single turnaround.