Any advice on borrowing more money for renovation work?

[minniebear]

We were massively massively lucky with our house (detached two bedroom 1930s house in North London) and got it for a very good price at £290'000 four years ago. We're on a low rate mortgage and since moving in, the house has roughly doubled in value to around £595'000/£600'000, meaning there is equity in the house.

We would like to extend and convert the loft, and have been quoted around £90'000 for this work and some landscaping in the front and back garden. I'm now self employed (I was employed when we had the house, but left my career in teaching when we had children), and we can't borrow money on my husband's salary alone - although we both have good credit scores.

Is it possible to borrow against the equity in the house? I won't be earning tons in the near future until my business gets off the ground, but equally won't be penniless. Do we just have to wait to do work on the house until I'm earning a decent salary and we can remortgage? I imagine I'm being naive and unrealistic - it just feels like we've been waiting forever to get started.

I would speak to a mortgage broker (L&C are free) and see that they can come up with. Your idea of what is affordable and what a lender thinks is affordable may be 2 different things on one salary, but its worth a shot. The only other thing I would suggest is that if you do get the green light, make sure you account for all the extras / decorating / furnishing when you decide how much to borrow. We ended up going back to the lender for more, which was fine in our particular circumstances 6 months ago, but they've changed now (new job) and I don't think they'd have lent the extra and we'd have been stuck with an almost-complete shell.

You might be able to borrow extra money against your house with your existing mortgage provider.

Your current mortgage at its low rate will run alongside the other product at whatever rate they offer.

Thank you! That's helpful, I'll contact our mortgage provider and try L&C :)

Another one who recommends L&C they actually specialise in non-standard mortgages/loans including for this damper of project.

Thank you! I'll give them a try tomorrow!

Damper of project 🤔 Should have read type of project lol