How is everyone affording extensions?

[Gingerbreadhouse1]

I recently enjoyed a stroll around my neighbourhood and it struck me that many residents are getting work done on their houses / converting garages / large ground floor extensions etc (all look excellent!)

I would love to extend at some point in the future, we had a few quotes and they were astronomical (for now).

Those who have / are carrying out these fantastic home renovations, how are you funding these?

savings / increasing mortgage or loans?

Curious as hoping to do so in a few years and any advice would be appreciated good/bad 🤞

Thank you!

We have done a pretty big extension, for us it was much needed space and the other choice was to move, this was far cheaper so we have extended our mortgage.

They’re probably remortgaging.

The extension might be a lot cheaper than moving.

We did ours with savings. But it cost far more than it would have done 5 years ago.

We’ve paid off our mortgage so have some spare money.

We bought a lot lower than we could afford with the view of extending a doer upper rather than buying a polished house at the top of our budget.

We did a loft conversion last year, which we paid for with a mixture of remortgage, savings and a loan. In hindsight, we'd have been better off doing it all via remortgaging but building costs went up faster than we'd anticipated and the amount we'd remortgaged for wasn't enough to do all the work!

We were lucky that we'd lived in our house for 7 years and it had increased a lot in value during that time, so remortgaging wasn't an issue. Most people we know who have done work to their house have done so through remortgaging.

People that aren’t being crushed by a 5-6% interest rate on their mortgage.

I see the same by me OP. A lot of it round here is older people who are probably mortgage free or people who took on a house with the intention to extend at the very beginning.

I also know people who have done one with a LOT of DIY.

Did a two storey, kitchen walls renovation and separate triple garage building with a big upstairs bit.
Mostly savings plus selling some shares.

Also interested in this. We’ve just had a quiet for an extension - one story, kitchen to be made bigger and adding a utility room and office. Tis fairly spacey to be fair. 200k. We could buy a house round here for just over that!!

My sister was looking to do one but found a house with for more sq footage then the extension would have given them and it cost less to move then doing it.

Friend has started their extension they didn't get planning for what they wanted so can only do permitted. They spent 2 yrs going nowhere else.g holidays not even staycations, their kids don't go to any activities it's just work and home or school and home and home all weekend. Also remortgaging a bit too. They won't have nay equity left as their is a ceiling price on our road and the cost of their reno plus what they paid means they wouldn't just about break even if they sold. It's their choice but I couldn't do that myself.

Wtf that's crazy

A lot of the people who are extending, in the past would probably have just moved to bigger property. Extending is expensive, but still less then the jump on house price for a bigger place, so when people need the space it's actually the 'cheaper' option. I imagine many are extending their mortgages, but still ending up owing less then if they had moved.

Ours cost a smidgen under £90k about 5 years ago. That same extension today would probably be £150k.

We funded it mostly via a 2nd mortgage on the house to free up equity, a bank loan and an interest free credit card.

Thankfully most of the repayments will drop off this summer and free up a chunk of money but we're already thinking about doing the loft.

This is our first and forever home though.

Remortgage but depends on equity in your house