Property: Your spare room in Sheffield could be worth almost £29,000

Figures show spare rooms in Yorkshire are worth £2,637 per square metre, based on an average property price of £193,675.

The statistics are from research by property platform Boomin and show London is home to the most expensive spare room value at £76,476, followed by the South East at £54,346 and the East of England at £49,211.

Statistics from the English Housing Survey by the Office for National Statistics show that 38% of homes in England are under-occupied - meaning they have two or more spare rooms. With 24.7 million homes across England, that’s 9.4 million homes boasting two or more rooms that are largely surplus to requirement.

One way to get your spare room generating value rather than wasting it is via the Government’s rent a room scheme. This allows you to generate rental income up to a maximum threshold of £7,500 per year without paying tax. That’s £625 per month in rent for a room you may otherwise rarely use.

Michael Bruce, chief executive officer and founder of Boomin, said: “Many of us have a spare room and during the pandemic, they’ve been used as home gyms, offices, art studios and more, as we’ve tried to maintain some sense of normality both professionally and personally.

“However, for many of us our spare room or rooms will generally sit untouched besides the odd visit from friends or family and they tend to double up as an overflow storage space for our old clothes, kids toys or other obsolete household items.

“This is quite amazing when you consider that this under-utilised space is worth over £40,000 per room and it certainly begs the question as to whether some homebuyers could save a considerable sum by being more realistic about how much space they actually need, compared to how much they would like.

“Alternatively, the Government’s rent a room scheme provides the potential to generate some additional income from your spare room and you could earn up to £625 a month tax-free.”

Meanwhile, being chain free when selling your home in Sheffield could be worth an extra £10,595, according to another survey.

The dreaded chain is the string of transactions linked to your purchase and can run on and on. It includes the property your seller is buying, the property their seller is buying and so on.

Not only can it cause considerable delays waiting for the stars to align so everyone can complete, but if one sale falls through it can often cause the whole chain to collapse like a deck of cards.

Research by estate agent comparison site GetAgent.co.uk has revealed just how much more homebuyers are willing to pay for a chain-free property purchase and a less stressful transaction process.

In Sheffield, the chain free house price is £205,284 compared to the average house price of £194,325 – an increase of 5.6% or £10,959.

Founder of GetAgent.co.uk Colby Short said: “A chain-free property can be a rare and converted creature in some areas of the property market and so when one does go up for sale, it’s not unusual for it to command a far higher price.”