Can a Stair Lift Increase Your Home’s Value?
Posted on by Eric Rubel
The installation of a stair lift will almost certainly make your life safer, easier, and more comfortable at home. However, you may also wonder what kind of impact it will have on your home’s resale value.
While the answer isn’t as simple and straightforward as you may wish, it’s crucial to understand that the value of a stair lift extends far beyond a potential boost in market price of your home. Let’s take a look at how stair lifts fit into the real estate landscape and why, even without a direct increase in home value, they remain a worthwhile investment.
First, it’s important to note that not all home accessibility renovations impact a home’s value equally. Updates which benefit all people, such as home elevators, are universally seen as property improvements. Other solutions can have a variable impact on home value: for instance, converting a home’s only bathtub into a walk-in shower might be considered a downgrade for some, but a bathroom renovated with modern, high-quality materials and a spacious, barrier-free shower would be seen as an upgrade.
Other accessibility solutions are simply neutral—they typically result in zero net change to home value—and stair lifts fall into this category as they're typically easily removable for a minimal cost with all things considered.
Stair Lifts vs. Elevators: Impact on Home Value
Stair lifts and elevators are both accessibility solutions for multi-story homes, so why is only one of these considered a property improvement that increases a home's value?
Home Elevators
An appealing product to a broad range of potential buyers (not just those with mobility issues), home elevators are highly customizable to fit your preferences and the home’s aesthetic. This makes them desirable features which nearly always increase your overall property value (although you may not necessarily recoup the elevator’s entire cost in your home’s sale price).
Stair Lifts
Stair lifts are more common than elevators, as they are far more affordable and require less construction to install. Unlike elevators though, they are not permanent architectural features, but specialized pieces of equipment useful for a limited audience. As a result, they don’t add value to your home.
Are Home Buyers Interested in Stair Lifts?
The reality is that home buyers are looking for a property which meets their current needs and preferences. In many areas, a limited real estate market has driven house prices up, and houses with desirable features will fetch even higher prices.
Stair lifts don’t typically rank among the most-wanted features in a home. Most buyers without an immediate need for mobility equipment will see the stair lift as something that needs to be removed and disposed of. (Because stair lifts are generally affordable and can be installed quickly, these buyers usually won’t want to keep the stair lift in place for potential future needs.)
This isn’t to say a stair lift is a negative for all buyers though. While its appeal is limited to very specific segment or two it can be seen as a positive feature to the following buyers looking for:
Accessibility:
People with accessibility needs may view a home with a stair lift or other types of accessibility solutions as an advantage. While they may be looking for a single-level home, a multi-level home that is equipped for people with mobility challenges may be a great alternative.
Future/Age-in-Place
There are also potential buyers who are actively thinking of aging in place in the coming years or may have family with mobility challenges moving into their home. If you live in an area with a high population of seniors, a stair lift might be an attractive selling point.
Does the IRS Consider Stair Lifts a Property Improvement?
From a tax perspective, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers certain home modifications for medical care as deductible medical expenses. Because the IRS does not consider a stair lift to be a property improvement (according to IRS publication 502), stair lifts are tax-deductible. The IRS allows you to deduct the entire cost in full as long as your doctor provides a prescription. In contrast, elevators and other home modifications that increase your property value are only partially deductible medical expenses.
Why Stair Lifts Don’t Hurt Your Home’s Value
While a stair lift isn’t likely to increase the value of your property for the reasons we’ve discussed above, it generally won’t detract from your home’s value, either. This is because stair lifts are easy to remove and leave minimal to no damage on the stairs.
The stair lift rail is bolted into the tread on every third or fourth step (for straight stair lifts) or every other step (for curved stair lifts). When the rail is removed, these steps will have 4 small screw holes, which do not impact their safety or integrity. On carpeted steps, these holes will be barely visible; on wooden steps, they can be filled with matching wood filler. Stair lift equipment is never mounted to the wall, so there will be no damage to the walls.
Above: a customer’s stairs after stair lift removal.
Note that stair lift removal should always be done by a professional. In fact, you may be able to sell the stair lift back to the company that installed it (as with Lifeway’s stair lift buy back program), in which case the removal will usually be free.
Final Thoughts
While a stair lift may not directly increase your home’s resale value in the same way a kitchen renovation or a new bathroom might, it also does not typically detract from your home’s value. Most important, however, is the stair lift’s value to you—and this goes beyond monetary worth. If a stair lift will enhance your quality of life, safety, and continued independence in the comfort of your own home, those benefits are well worth the investment. However, if increasing home value is important to you, a home elevator is a great stairlift alternative to consider.
If you're interested in adding a home elevator or stair lift to your home, contact us to set up a free consultation!
