If you want to improve your home rather than relocate, but are stuck for ideas, a new website is offering to help for a flat fee of £495. At www.betternest.co.uk, you feed in your photographs, a floor plan and a postcode, and it will try to answer three questions: how much space you can add, how much the work will cost and what the property would be worth in today’s market if fully developed. The service is initially available only in London, but is being rolled out nationwide.

“People are caught in a dilemma – ‘Should I or shouldn’t I improve?’ ” says Simon Smith, chief executive of the company, who previously owned an architectural practice in Fulham, southwest London. “This gives an answer to that dilemma. It’s about revealing potential.”

Users have two options: a personalised version, where they can stipulate what they would like, such as an extra bedroom or an office, and an optimum version, in which the Betternest team comes up with ways to maximise space and profit. More detailed help, such as a prediction of how long the work will take, will cost an extra £85.

“We are a first step for people,” Smith says. “You can add value simply by reworking the planning of your house. And you don’t have to spend thousands to do it.”

Times recommends

• Fall in house sales hits builders, estate agents and mortgage brokers
• Why the property credit crunch favours cash buyers
• The blood-curdling history of Quarrelwood House