Remortgage or use savings

[Murtaghjames]

DH and myself want to build an extension and granny flat. We have planning permission and the drawings but we are not sure what way to finance project. We are unable to remortgage until next year as the bank we need to use requires that you are in your job one year, DH just started a new job in January 2021. The mortgage broker I contacted told me that we could get €70k if we could wait until next January. My DH was talking to an older friend of his and he suggested we use our savings(55k) and do the build ourselves. My DH is an electrician and family members are, carpenters, roofers etc. I'm just anxious about using all our savings and not having anything for a rainy day. If we remortgage the repayments for 70k work our at about €170 extra a month. We would rent the granny flat out for €1200 a month. What should we do, wait and remortgage or use savings?

You could use your savings and then re-mortgage to replenish them next January if you feel you want to get going with the extension now. For a lot of people, 55k savings is really rather a lot. 10 or 20k would be reasonable 'for a rainy day'.

if you are in England, there is the threat of a wealth tax. Spend as much as you can, we are all screwed either way.

if you are not in England, then wait which is the obviously sensible approach.

We live in Ireland @murbblurb

@somethingonthecarpet, that sounds like something I would consider. As I've never remortgaged before what are you allowed remortgage for as in do they need proof if you see you need to remortgage for 30k to buy a car if that makes sense... Probably not

So long as you have the equity in your house and meet the other criteria (income) etc you can remortgage was as little as you want. E.g. you have equity of 100k but only want to remortgage for 10, so long as you meet the requirements for that additional 10k (income, affordability etc) you can.