How much can you borrow for an extension?!

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I know I know, I need to speak to the bank. But frankly they make it so hard I thought I would just see on here.

We have a house worth £220k
Mortgage is £120k left.
Joint income is £54k
We have 30years to pay it off.
No debt and good credit scores but two kids.

We need to extend the house but have no idea how much they will let us remortgage for.

Anyone in a similar position? I've got a horrible feeling we are about to get a quote for the extension that we cannot afford. I can't be bothered to make an appointment to go into the bank as it's miles away and I want a rough idea.

Any anecdotes appreciated!

I guess you would be able to borrow 50k extra but think about LTV because over 80% will be higher interest rates. With current building costs you might need a chunk of savings too.

This is my fear. I've got a rough estimate coming in from a builder but I think what we want will be 80k and we have 5k in savings so nothing really!

Well depending on your lender, you could probably go up to 90% LTV so you may be able to get your £80k (or close to it). Whether thats a sensible option is another matter. As is usually the case, think of what you'll need on top of the cost of the build (our build cost was just for the shell, to a plastered finish, so flooring / bifolds / kitchen / bathroom / decorating etc was all on top of that) and we also went over the build cost for having a few little extras along the way.

We could afford the new mortgage and the value of the house went up by more than we borrowed / spent so it was all worthwhile financially (as well as making the house work for us) but think about it carefully and do some research about the likely cost (the build cost plus all the extras) before you start.

That's pretty much the same calculations as us apart from we had £100k left on our mortgage. Roughly same income and house value. We were able to remortgage for £50k towards our extension.

When we did it last year, they did a complete reassessment of our finances and calculated based on our outgoings, savings etc.

We had slightly different finances to you but not dissimilar and they offered 40k max.

Bear in mind practically every building project goes over by around 20% and the cost of materials and labour have rocketed.

I don’t think you can afford it I’m afraid if this is your only funding option.

Ours we similar figures except our joint income is about £20k more.

We did a single story extension/ new kitchen. We borrowed 60k by adding to mortgage, took out a 20k personal loan over five years and have spent almost 10k on credit cards.

Original forecast was 75k, cost of materials went up and a few unexpected things to deal with during the build meant we ended up spending £90k.

Do you know that your £220 valuation is accurate?

I had a loft conversion 17 years ago and it cost me £45k. My Mum died and left me some money so I used a big chunk of it making more space for us all because i.could not face a house move. OP you do not have to trevk all the way to the bank. You can book a telephone call to discuss it all with your local bank branch. If you have a clear credit card you could use that for paying bills and buying food for a while provided you can make minimum payments. I would sort that phone call sooner rather than later became credit is going up along with interest rates.

The last time we remortgaged they made us go into branch, wouldn't speak to us over the phone! But I will give them a call.

Honestly this makes me want to cry. I don't want the world. We have two bedrooms and a box room. We want three proper bedrooms. Moving house is the shit option as we bought at the right time and have a large driveway and huge garden. Excellent location. We wanted to make the house suitable for the kids to stay in as adults and future proof it abit.

Moving house means spending more money for less overall. The extension is the best option by far.

Yeah, we had our house valued before Christmas. The estate agent said doing the extension would put the value of the house up accordingly.

We had to jump through stupid amounts of hoops even though we wanted to borrow a tiny amount in relation to what the house is worth and we have a very small mortgage. I wish we'd just put it on a credit card.

Anyway think seriously about contingency. On a £110 estimated extension (one floor) kitchen and a knock through with steel. We ended up spending an unexpected £5K on underpinning a wall, and £5K on drains and £10K putting the garden back to a useable state.

Ok I phoned the bank and was shocked to be told they could do a quick affordability check. It was basic but they said 78k which would be £300-£400 a month extra. Perfectly doable but let's see what the quotes say.
I'm stunned they would lend us that but don't wish to borrow that amount. It might be worth paying for the plans to be done though and getting the planning permission depending quotes. I feel a tad brighter now

Build costs are a lot. What are you wanting to get done?

We had a two story extension done, 10x3, and were 107k, but that did include a kitchen and bathroom.

I would get 3 or 4 quotes by different companies as it will be expensive. Also ask to see other jobs they have done. We looked through galleries online of work before picking the one we used. Check how long it will take, quality of materials too. Make sure quote is exactly like for like. Sounds like you will get it done op. I agree best to have extension on current house if everything else works for you there. Moving, sdlt, solicitors fees all make moving th we least preferred option. Especially if kids are settled in a good school an DC you have decent neighbours.

Ok so we currently live in a 1930s semi, 2 bedrooms and a tiny box room. However the house already has a kitchen extension and we redid that 3 years ago so will not be touching it.

We are adding two metres onto the kitchen and having a garden room. Then building above the kitchen and garden room a bedroom. The bathroom will need to be moved along to make room for a corridor. That's it's. So we are building onto an existing extension, not doing two story the whole way along.

There are lots of other bits we could do if we could afford it but that is the basic bit we really need to do in order to future proof our home.

I'm very nervous about the quote. We are getting a quote from a reputable builder. Then the builder over the road did our neighbours but they paid cash and it was 20k cheaper as he didn't charge VAT. He is another option but we are less confident with that. Our neighbours looks great though but my gut is that he isn't as reliable.

If you're planing to add a storey on top please check the foundations of the old extension are suitable. We had to get ours underpinned as they weren't strong enough for 2 storeys and it cost a fortune in extra work and structural engineering fees/drawings

The builder said he would be shocked if they weren't suitable foundations. We've had a few builders tell us that over the years. But yes I totally appreciate what you are saying!

you need more than 2 quotes on something as important as an extension. We got 4 and there was quite a difference. Asking to see their past work is also normal too. If your neighbours looks good why do you think that builder is not reliable? 20% is a lot to save if the work is good.

Have you tried habito for your remortgage?

I’d genuinely be very surprised if you can do that for less than £100k

If your neighbours looks good why do you think that builder is not reliable? 20% is a lot to save if the work is good.

He asked them to pay the whole lot in cash and that just doesn't sit right with me He also didn't do a written quote. I suspect he did it off the books and therefore cheaper. I don't really care about that but I do care about the lack of written stuff because surely that means you are less protected? He actually did our bathroom a few years ago and it was fine. A couple of daft mistakes but it's been ok. I would definitely get a proper quote off him and consider it but I don't want to not have anything in writing.

I’d genuinely be very surprised if you can do that for less than £100k

Neighbours did very similar for £45k three years ago. Who knows what ridiculous price it will
be now though. We will know in a week!