Improving your home's kerb appeal is one of the best ways to boost its value, create a welcoming first impression, and set the tone for what lies beyond your front door.

Whether you're prepping to sell or want to take pride in your home's exterior, here are the quick wins that cost less than £50, plus investment-worthy upgrades that could boost your property's value.

Click or scroll to discover kerb appeal hacks for any budget...

Driveways are a prominent and important part of a home's exterior. Usually facing a public road or pathway, yours is likely passed by dozens of people every day, and it is one of the first things that people see when they visit your house.

So, it goes without saying that you want it to look its best. Yet many make the mistake of neglecting this vital part of their property. From structural cracks to oil stains and out-of-control weeds, a neglected driveway gives the impression of poor maintenance.

Luckily, there are plenty of budget-friendly fixes that will help you transform your driveway and give it back its sparkle. A good pressure washer will remove most stains and the top parts of weeds for a speedy refresh. Power washers can be hired from DIY stores for as little as £99.

If your driveway is suffering from cracks, then a quality filler will allow you to make repairs without breaking the bank. A 25kg bag of asphalt repair costs less than £10. 

If you have the budget and your driveway is suffering from severe damage, then it might be worth resurfacing it. This costs a fraction of replacement but delivers dramatic results. Checkatrade estimates the average professional driveway sealing project costs between £200 and £400.

If yours is beyond help, then you may need to have a brand-new drive laid. This job can cost anywhere from £50 to £130 per square metre. The cheapest driveway material is gravel, which averages at £3,000. One plus is that a new driveway can add between 5% and 10% to the value of a property. 

Our gardens often reveal a great deal about the time and attention we devote to our homes. So, a wild, overgrown garden could make your property look abandoned, or could give the impression that the rest of your house is equally unloved.

If you're looking to sell your house in the near future, it's worth remembering that buyers want to see a well-maintained garden that won't require immediate attention or expensive work to bring it up to scratch. Failure to care for your outside space could lead to a reduction in the amount someone is willing to spend on your property.

Of course, there are several ways you can add kerb appeal to your garden. The cheapest way is by grabbing some tools, rolling up your sleeves, and getting stuck into a spot of gardening. Trim back overgrown shrubs or hedges, mow the lawn, remove any dead plants or weeds, and edge garden beds for clean lines.

Most hardware stores sell gardening tools, with many sets costing less than £50. If you can't face tackling the work yourself, then hire a professional gardener to help you. One could cost anywhere from £15 to £45 per hour.

If it's time to give your exterior space a total refresh, then you might consider hiring a professional landscape gardener. They will plan the layout of your outdoor space, choose appropriate plants, and design features like patios and paths. They will also prepare the ground and do all the hard graft, including building decking, fences, or installing water features. The average cost of a landscape designer is £1,375, or £230 per day. 

However, this outlay will no doubt be repaid when you come to sell. It's thought that a well-maintained garden could add as much as 20% to the value of your home.

Nothing makes a home look neglected more than peeling or faded paintwork. Whether on your front door, window frames, or exterior walls, flaking or lacklustre paint can make even the most modern home look tired and dated.

If a prospective buyer comes to visit your house and immediately sees paintwork that hasn't been properly looked after, they could instantly be deterred from buying your home. After all, what else might you have failed to care for?

Thankfully, there is a speedy and affordable way to fix the issue, and a metal scraper, a pack of sandpaper, and a tin of wood paint could be all that's standing between your paintwork looking shabby or smart. A tin of good-quality exterior wood paint, like Rust-Oleum's Exterior & Garden range, will set you back as little as £21 for a 750ml tin.

If you don't fancy doing the job yourself, you could hire a professional. A painter and decorator typically charges £325 per day, according to Checkatrade.

If you're looking for a more expensive fix, a brand-new front door will cost from £550 to £1,800, while average labour costs range between £500 and £1,000. 

New windows could set you back around £80 each, depending on the style and type you go for. You can expect to pay around £600 a day for installation, too. The added benefit is that new windows can add anywhere between 5% and 10% to your property’s value.

Finally, the average cost to paint a house exterior is around £30 per square metre. For the average semi-detached home, that equates to around £2,700.

Cluttered porches or entryways overflowing with items can make a home seem chaotic and disorganised. Whether your bins are blocking the door, or you're storing garden tools, old furniture, or personal items outside, you won't be helping your home look its best.

If you want to sell your property, then clutter and mess can make house-hunters feel unwelcome, and they may struggle to envision themselves living there while navigating around your belongings.

The best thing about sprucing up your front porch or entryway is that it's essentially free. All you need is a broom, a few bin bags, and a pair of gloves. Get rid of everything except for a few welcoming touches, such as some potted plants or a new doormat.

If you have space, you could build a storage cupboard in an available niche to hide away essentials. You should be able to pick up all the tools you need for less than £50. You could even sell unwanted items to generate the funds for the job.

If you're ready to splash the cash, then you could go all out and transform your entrance into a kerb appeal marvel. You could lay new premium flooring materials, like natural stone or herringbone brickwork, invest in some designer outdoor lights, and upgrade your brassware – a new stylish door knocker or an elegant letterbox.

If you don't want to do the work yourself, then you could hire a handyman to tackle your porch. The average rate for a handyman in the UK is £27 per hour, or £188 per day, according to Ha Much. 

Dark entryways with broken or weak lighting aren't just unwelcoming; they can be unsafe. Good quality exterior lights will illuminate your way from the road to your front door, while also enhancing the visual appeal of your home's façade.

Broken porch lights, missing bulbs, or outdated fixtures instantly drag down your home's kerb appeal and could make it look cheap and unloved. So, what can you do about it?

Improving your home's exterior lighting doesn't have to be difficult or expensive. Focus on ensuring all the bulbs in your lights are working and replace any that are blown. If some of your fixtures don't work, are broken, or have exposed wires, it might be time to replace them with new, modern alternatives. Just make sure you buy outdoor-safe fittings.

If you're replacing lights, it's best to enlist a professional electrician, which will set you back £50 an hour. Alternatively, solar pathway lights can be bought for less than £20 and instantly improve aesthetics.

If you can afford to go all out, you could invest in designer lighting to totally transform your exterior. From motion-sensor porch lights that turn on when you approach, to solar fixtures that are powered by the sun, and even app- and voice‑controlled lighting systems that allow you to customise your lighting to suit your schedule, there are endless options available.

Installing smart lighting throughout your home and garden will cost anywhere from £3,200 to £10,500.

Featured outdoor lighting available from Nedgis.

Broken or shabby fence panels will immediately date your property. Anyone walking past your home will assume you don't take care of it and may conclude that you neglect the rest of the property, too.

Not only that, poor garden barriers also raise security and privacy concerns, so potential buyers could instantly be turned off from purchasing your home.

Improving the look of your fence need not be a big DIY project or an expensive one. It might be as simple as replacing damaged fence posts or missing panels to ensure a secure and stable finish.

These can be bought for less than £30 from most good hardware stores. If your fence is looking unsightly, it might just need a sand and a lick of paint. Just ensure you buy a good quality formula that's designed for outdoor use.

It won't surprise you to learn that fencing can range drastically in price, depending on the type, style, and material you choose – not to mention how large your home's boundary is. If you're feeling like it's time for a brand-new fence, then you could be looking at £45 per panel, on average. Installation costs, if you're hiring help, average at £1,450 for a 1.2 metre (4ft) fence and £1,850 for a 1.8 metre (6ft) fence.

These days, there are plenty of luxurious fence options, too, like wrought iron, steel, and aluminium. The typical cost for a metre of wrought iron fencing is between £675 and £850, while aluminium and steel come in at £297.50 and £165 per metre respectively.

Both exterior render and brick mortar are not just important from a kerb appeal perspective. They are crucial to a home's structure and stability. Overlooking these elements could lead to serious problems over time. If mortar crumbles or erodes, your exterior walls will weaken and could become unsafe over time.

Mortar and render also act like a buffer, keeping water out. So, if your brickwork or render is looking tired, or like it might begin to crumble away at any minute, it's time to act.

Despite seeming like a big, scary job, fixing flaking brick mortar or exterior render doesn't always require expensive professional work. Small cracks or worn mortar joints can be filled with a chisel, trowel, and pre-mixed mortar – these items can be sourced from a hardware store, or crack repair kits can be bought online for less than £60. 

Lose render can be removed with a pressure washer, before a flexible filler or exterior caulk can be applied to fine cracks.

If your home's mortar or render is beyond saving, then it might be time to call in the experts. The average repointing cost for a brick wall is £55 per square metre. To put that into perspective, repointing a semi-detached house costs between £4,000 and £5,000.

The trade will first remove all the old mortar before filling the gaps with new lime or cement mortar. If your home needs to be rendered, you could be looking at spending between £9,690 and £12,075. Of course, fixing your home's render or mortar could potentially add value to your home.

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