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How Do You Fund Your Home Improvements British home owners are extremely house proud and always looking to make the most of their property, whether it is re-decorating, adding an extension or replacing their kitchen or bathroom. Home improvement can help enhance your home to live in, as well as possibly increase your properties value, but home improvements are not free and some projects can cost you from a few hundred pounds to tens of thousands of pounds, so we decided to ask our visitors how they would fund their home improvements and got some interesting feedback.
Save
From our research we found that the majority of home owners are currently dipping in to their savings for their home improvements, from our data we found that 31% of people asked saved the money to complete their home improvement project, although this is largely biased towards the older home owners with just over 82% of the home owners being over the age of 30, this may be because this demographic earn more and have more savings than a younger home owner, this may also be because many of these people often live in nicer properties and have less urgent home improvement projects, meaning they have the luxury of waiting.Personal Home Improvement Loan
The second most popular way of financing home improvements is taking out a personal loan with 30% of respondents choosing this option, with approximately 4000 people searching for home improvement loans on google each month you can see how popular this is, with personal loans you see more 25-30 year olds choosing this as an option with 36.21%. Personal Loans for home improvements can have their drawbacks, as you will be borrowing the money you will end up paying back more with the nterest charged on the personal loan.
The amount you are able to borrow via a personal loan is usually £15,000 depending on your credit profile, this amount can allow you to carry out a lot of home improvement projects but for the bigger jobs you may need a bit more, combining this with your savings could allow you increase your home improvement budget.
Putting Your Home Improvements On Your Credit Card
Third most popular was the credit card with 19%, although designed to be a method of short term finance many of us are using credit cards to fund home improvements this may be because of the ease of finance many people already have a credit card and can use it without having to apply for additional credit. If used correctly a credit card can be a cheaper alternative than other options with many having interest free periods and offers, it is important to note that this is not designed for long term finance and when the introductory low rate ends most credit cards will have a higher rate of interest than a personal loan.
Remortgaging To Raise Money For Home Improvements
From our research we found that 10% would remortgage to carry out the home improvements. By using your homes existing equity, you are often able to benefit from a lower rate of interest. Over the last few years this option has been available to fewer people as house prices stagnated and mortgage lenders tightened lending criteria, but more recently this has started to become a viable option again.
Borrow From Friends & Family
During our research we found that younger home owners still often require to borrow some money from their parents, it is increasingly difficult for first time buyers to get on the property ladder, needing a big deposit. These first time buyers are often buying homes that may need some work carrying out but having to take out a large mortgage, meaning that additional credit may be of difficulty, except from the bank of mum & dad.
Other Ways of Financing your Home Improvements
There are other home improvement finance options available that include secured homeowner loans, finance options provided by the tradesmen or company carrying out the home improvements, you could also get creative by raising money for your home improvements, by clearing unwanted items from your house and taking them to a car boot sale or selling them on ebay.
However you fund your home improvements it is important you consider carefully the different options and if you take out finance you are able to afford the repayments, you should also ensure you have a proper breakdown of the cost of any home improvement project at the beginning so you are able to budget properly. If you are looking to reduce how much money you need to carry out your home improvements project then why not enter your jobs details into our simple enquiry form and we will be able to give you a selection of low cost quotes for the work that you will be able to compare.
"Surprisingly people seem to be more willing to save to carry our home improvement, this may be because of the difficulty of obtaining finance in recent
