Repair, Renovate and Rebuild With The Financial Clout of a Remortgage!
Owing to the current depressed property market and the increasing availability of competitive remortgage deals, many home owners who may have been contemplating of moving this year have decided to renovate, rebuild or extend or add value to their current home.
Whatever your needs; a remortgage can help you raise money to fund your home improvements. Whether you need an extra bedroom for a growing family or a conservatory or extension to give you extra living space, improving your home can be beneficial to you as well as adding value to your property.
The government is encouraging homeowners to either build their own homes or to extend and renovate their existing properties. The Housing Minister, Grant Shapps, recently suggested that the government will ‘put its money where its mouth is’ in terms of helping people with building projects. If you are considering any building work, there are a number of factors you have to consider before you begin.
Firstly, you will need detailed plans for the proposed work. This may involve hiring a surveyor or architect to provide drawings and plans for how your building project will look when completed. They can also help manage the build project.
You may also need to find a project manager who can keep a close eye on everything, and make decisions when they need to be made. Of course, as it is your own home you may want to do this, but you will need to beware that this can be time consuming and may require you to take time off work in order to manage the project properly.
You will also have to consider who is going to oversee the work. Managing the project yourself can be time consuming but it will save you money. However, for larger jobs it may be advisable to hire a specialist to help.
It is important that you check with the builders first if they will be dealing with this, as the last thing you would want is to have your new extension torn down because planning permission was never sought.
If you are completing the work yourself, then you will need to submit the plans for planning permission, but if you are outsourcing the work to a contractor or building firm then they will need to do this for you. Make sure you know whose responsibility it is before you start.
You will also need to think about how your project is being funded, and if you will be using a further advance from a remortgage, then you’ll need to sort all of the financing out before starting any work to ensure that you can get the full amount required.
There are a number of reasons why a remortgage is a useful way of raising the money you need for your building project. Firstly, you can use the available equity in your property to add value to your home; indeed some lenders will agree a remortgage based on the ‘when finished’ valuation of your property. In addition, remortgage rates are often lower than rates on other types of borrowing. This means you can benefit from a low interest rate not only on your additional borrowing but also on your main mortgage. With interest rates currently at a record low level, remortgaging can help you avoid the need to move home by providing the cash you need to extend or refurbish your current residence.
Timothy Frodsham writes for JustRemortgages.com one of the UK’s top sites for the latest remortgage rates and best remortgage deals.