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how to get a mortgage for home improvement?

1 reply

befuzzled · 17/03/2011 14:04

how do you go about getting a mortgage to buy a house that needs money for renovations straight away? In our case, we are struggling to find a "done" house in our area (south east) at our price range (at or around stamp duty threshold). We are currently renting. We have about 100K for a deposit and can get a mortgage of around 400K on our salaries. But there are no 500K houses around. So we are looking at probate sale etc places that need a lot of work - complete gutting and one or 2 storey extension. These come in at around 375K and would need 70/80K spent I guess. So in theory it works.

However, our mortgage advisor says that it will be difficult to get a mortgage for a house like this as we will have to hold back 80K of our 100K deposit for the works so won't have enough money at 20K odd left for a minimum deposit for a mortgage - even though we would be borrowing less?

How does it work? Is there a better way to achieve a family house that is valued at or around 500K. Don't care about resale, just a place to live.

OP posts:
Chil1234 · 17/03/2011 17:59

Time was you could borrow 100% (or more in some cases) of the value because it was a given that improving the place would add to the value. Now they don't lend more than 90% and future value isn't so assured.

What you could do is put down £40k on your £375k home, move in, start the works with £60k and then borrow the remainder via a bank loan rather than a mortgage... Or think about a different/cheaper area and endure a commute?

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