Question about my first home

[xmasnc2020]

Hi all,
I bought my first home in Summer 2019 and have been renovating since then. I haven't had the house valued following the work being done but I've made an estimate so I'll leave the numbers here incase this affects the answer to my questions!
It's a 3 bed semi.
Bought for £144,000 with a 5% deposit of £7,200 with the help to buy scheme
Renovation cost so far £23,000
Current value around £180,000

I have a brand new kitchen, bathroom and separate toilet room. Fixed the damp, roof and 2 sunken drains. New carpet and flooring throughout as well as full redecoration. Also done more minor things like had radiator pipes that were running across the walls hidden, made some electrical improvements and generally modernised things.

I've never done this before so am clueless as to what can happen next. I'm happy here for now but if I wanted to move does the value I have added to the house just go towards a deposit for the next house?

And what would happen if we wanted to make further improvements to this house? I would love to have an extension on the back of the house so could I somehow remortgage and use the money to do that?

Sorry if these are stupid questions 😫 I feel really clueless and don't really have anyone else to ask.

I also just want to add, I feel a bit uncomfortable sharing the numbers. I know how privileged I am to have what I have, and I worked really, really hard to get here. Others will think that's insanely cheap where as to others that will be a lot! Well to me it's a lot! Just didn't want to sound 'off' by sharing.
Many thanks

The difference between what you sell your property for and the remaining mortgage would be the amount you have to use as a deposit for a future property (less any legal fees, stamp duty etc). When it comes to that you don't have to use all the money if you don't want to (if you had £40k left but wanted to keep £10k for refurb then you could do that as long as you met loan to value criteria).

If you wanted to take money out of the house now, you can usually do that depending on mortgage terms but need to still meet affordability criteria and loan to value as they will still be looking at that.

Firstly congratulations on buying your home. You’ve done really well to get on the housing ladder.
Not sure how the help to buy affects you but from what I understand once it’s used it won’t matter if you sell after a length of time.
Be aware that there are ceiling prices on property so make sure that you don’t spend too much and you won’t get your money back if you sell.
You can find these prices by looking on Rightmove to see how much similar houses have sold for in your road.
For example it’s not worth putting a 30k kitchen in a house that’s worth 150k

Thanks @ApplePie86 that's really helpful

@Cassimin thanks! It's been quite the journey. Yes I have considered exactly that, I could easily spend about 80k more (if I had it!) but would never get it back in value.

Doesn't sound like you are clueless, so congratulations and well done so far. I agree with the other posts. You have given a lot of detail in your post , however unless you have exchanged contracts the 'Current value' you have quoted is meaningless.

The point that Cassimin makes is extremely important, there is a ceiling on the amount spent on improvements adds to the value of a property.

Thanks @BurgerOnTheOrientExpress yes you're right which is why I'm thinking carefully about what to do next. I'd love to carry on doing things to the house but don't want to waste my money!

I think I should stop, stay here till I'm ready to move on which won't be for another few years and then do my fancy extension on a house where it will be reflected in the value!

Dont forget help to buy scheme means they will take a slice of any profit you make from the sale of your house in addition to what you owe them

Gkeshs3under3 My children have the help to buy isa, one has a lifetime isa. They opened them with the intention of saving for a deposit.
I didn’t know about the help to buy scheme.

Sorry @Gkeshs3under3 do you mind explaining further?

It isn't the shared ownership offer if that's what you're thinking

I just had a help to buy isa and was able to get a 5% mortgage as a first time buyer

I think there’s a help to buy scheme offered by the government but it’s for new builds.
With you doing so much work I assumed you had the isa that my children have.

Remember every street has a ceiling price, you could go over that and never get your money back

The extra equity in the house could also push you into a different LTV bracket, making your next mortgage cheaper (presuming you are on a fixed term mortgage that will need to be changed in 2 / 5 years)