Kitchen design enthusiasts have been given an extra incentive to push on with ambitious renovations by assertions that property values can be raised significantly by making changes there.Kitchens and bathrooms were identified as the most important areas for home improvement by the association of building firms FMB.Robin Hood-Leeder, director of membership services at FMB, explained why these rooms commanded such a premium They are the things people first look at. Sometimes in estate agents windows they will not show you pictures of the house, but theyll show you pictures of the kitchen and then the bathroom. I suppose its because people recognise that these are where the big expenditures are, continued Mr Hood-leader, confirming the indications given last year by Nationwide, who judged bathroom improvements to add as much as five per cent to the value of a property. Putting in new sinks and taps may then be a more attractive proposition than ever for kitchen and bathroom do-it-yourself designers.Kitchen sinks equipped with the environmentally-friendly option of a waste disposal unit may come to represent a particularly valuable asset when selling a property, in light of the new importance placed on green standards by Home Information Packs.