How do you afford an extension?

[Modestandatinybitsexy]

This is our forever home. To make it work long term we'd like to do an extension. Probably 3mx3m off the back, two storey. New kitchen and two bathrooms.

I have no idea how much this will cost. We're in a very expensive part of the east. Obviously we'd need plans drawn up and quotes for the work.

But I don't want to get the ball rolling until I have an idea of how the financials work. We have savings but probably only about 10% of what we'd need.

Do you do the work all with bank loans and then remortgage based on new valuation? Do you save up so you can afford most of it without difficulty? How do you have any idea if you can do this?

Both DH & I are quite risk adverse. We know it would be worth it and we're happy to put up with the work but the cost is scary!

Depending where you are, I'd work on the basis that it'll be £2-2.5k per sq, plus VAT, so as very rough figures £21-27k, plus kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, decoration etc. I'd make preliminary enquiries if you can finance that, through savings / remortgaging against the current value of house. If you can, then get the ball rolling with drawings and planning permission (that's an extra cost to the above) and get some quotes. Most good builders are booked up for up to a year.

We are in this situation currently although possibly a bit further forward than you because we already have our planning permission.

What we found was that builders wouldn’t even really speak to us without drawings and even now that we have drawings they’re not that interested until it’s the more detailed drawings that are done for the building warrant (I think that’s what they’re for).

So we’ve been in a tricky catch 22 ... we’ve had to spend money for the drawings and PP just to get to a place where builders will give us their time but even now we can’t get an accurate estimate/quote. Once we have these final drawings back we could speak to builders and actually not be able to afford it because we will be relying on hefty bank loans because there’s not enough equity in the house yet. I don’t want to speak to the bank too much yet in case the numbers coming back from builders are much too high.

If we’d been here a few years longer we’d remortgage but as it stand we are hoping to do the work then remortgage to pay off the loan. Then probably take another loan to do more work

Your architect should be able to give you a pretty accurate costing re: the building. If he cannot you are using the wrong architect.

Or she - our architect was female!

We were lucky that we had an offset mortgage and when we remortgaged we borrowed a lot extra (which was offset) andvthen ciuld draw this down to pay for our extension.

We borrowed money from our mortgage. We put in the application and hsd the money before the builders started. We also have 7k on a credit card as youll find everything cost 2x more than you thought!

We had to save as we already had the maximum mortgage we could based on earnings so couldn't increase our borrowing.

We also had the huge problem that we saved what we thought we needed (based on rough estimates from a couple of builders) and then got plans drawn up and quotes and they were double our rough quotes! So we then had to save for another 2 years.

We waited 5 years after we moved in to get things rolling. By then our house had increased in value so could remortgage & borrow a lot more but with same repayments (although obviously we'll have to pay more back in the end). We did get a couple of builders to give us ballpark estimates but very difficult as things change so much. In the time we've been in planning, pound falling & market declining has meant everything has got loads more expensive. We were originally going to do two stories but have scales back to just ground floor as a result as even that is pushing the budget!

Yeah we're in the part of the country that the last episode of Kirsty&Phil's Love it or List it was on and the difficulties they had with escalating quotes and finding reliable builders got me a bit worried.

We moved in 3 years ago and extension has been 5 years away since then. Realistically I think it's still 5 years away.

But thank you all for the insight. It's great to know how real people dealt with it. Wish you all luck with any ongoing work.

Op, I'm in a similar part of the country to you then! We are also extending, single storey at the back 6x6m. We have not found it too stressful (apart from a NDN issue- I have a thread on it!). We have a relatively small existing mortgage (approx 25% of house value). We looked to move a few years back and got approved in principle for an extra 100k so we knew it was likely we could re-mortgage easily. Our remortgage has now been approved and we've taken the smallest amount possible. We have some savings to pay for flooring, furniture and kitchen (but we may get this on 0% finance). We first contacted a architect and the plans were drawn within a few weeks, then submitted to council (under permitted planning) and are due to hear this week. We did have problems getting builders to even respond to emails (I contacted about 10) but 2 did come round and gave detailed quotes based on our plans and site visit. There was quite a variation(30k) but we have chosen the cheaper one as they came recommended and it felt right. If all goes well they could start in next two months.

We used savings. Did loft and ground floor extensions approx 11 yrs after buying house. I wish we had bothered ourselves to do it earlier. Made such a difference.

We've remortgaged too - single story, permitted development. Quite a large variation in quotes but gone with highest (gulp) as he was way better and had done a great job of our friends' extension. I'd have thought a two-storey would be way more than suggested upthread. Often seems to tip into six figures from what I've seen on here.

We have remortgaged, but now pay less per month.

As others say, everything costs more, so I have ended up cashing in my premium bonds and putting some on a credit card too! I have a strategy to pay off the card though, I wouldn't want to leave it there for too long as the interest is so high.

We are really cutting back at the moment to make sure we can cover it.

Our property went up in value by £115k in the first year of owning it, so we knew we would be able to release this about of money if we needed - but we waited 5 years before we instructed a builder.
During that time, we remortgaged about 50% of it, to enable us to have the cash to get plans drawn up, get planning and start instructing builders. We agreed to a builders quote just before our mortgage was due for renewal again. The savings we had from the 50% have enabled us to pay the first couple of instalments and our remortgage will complete in time to finish the work. On top of this we have tightened our belts - every spare penny has been put aside - we are forever saying 'well it isn't much, but it's another kitchen door handle' or ' it's the difference between this set of taps, and that set of taps' - during the build we've had to be careful, it's easy to think 'well what's another £200 when you're spending £100k' but they all add up.
I'm working on the basis that we've invested in stuff that is disruptive to do again - flooring, plumbing, electrics. But things like taps or doors be have reduced costs, as these could be upgraded down the line.