| The
festive season has past and the weather seems to be improving,
and let us hope that the improvement lasts.
The ground
is no longer covered with snow and ice in most areas of the
UK and when you waken in the morning you can hear the little
birds chirping and happily singing outside your window, allowing
thoughts of better weather, lighter nights and spring time
to enter your head.
The winter
is a good time to make plans concerning all the improvements
you wish to make to your home and garden to really enjoy your
surroundings in spring and summer.
Gazing
out over the lawn you can actually watch yourself sitting
in the bright sunshine enjoying a nice glass of Muscatel.
You feel
that looking out at your garden this January that by the time
the good weather arrives that you want to enjoy that chilled
bottle of Chablis sitting on your new decking beside an up
market hardwood patio set with sum umbrella and eight seats
on which your friends can sit when eating delicious food from
a very expensive barbeque and wood fired pizza oven which
was delivered at great expense from Milan.
In the
pale winter sun your kitchen looks updated and ready to be
replaced by a nice new contemporary one.
The bathroom
suite in the colour green was so popular at the time of purchase
but looks extremely outdated and ready for a new white one
now very much in fashion.
There
are two types of home loans that a homeowner can use when
he wants to arrange home improvements.
These
methods are either by remortgages or secured loans, and which
is preferable depends on several factors.
Both secured
loans and remortgages are home loans secured on the equity
of a property, and they are both excellent reasonably priced
ways to carry out home improvements.
Remortgages
replace the existing mortgage, and if going down the remortgage
route, a homeowner with an existing mortgage of £120,000
who requires £40,000 for home improvements would require
a remortgage amount of £160,000.
Based
on the above example, a homeowner choosing a secured loan
would leave the If the mortgage stands at £120,000 which
is a totally stand alone product and has nothing to do with
the current mortgage.
A secured
loan has an interest rate starting at 9% at present, and can
be arranged start to finish in just over two weeks which may
be preferable if the prospective borrower sees home improvement
bargains which are only available at a reduced price for a
few weeks.
Remortgages
take twice the time to arrange, but their rates start at 1.98%
for homeowners with a maximum LTV of 60%, and as such if there
is no great hurry for the money and no early repayment penalty
involved in the existing mortgage, remortgages may well be
the better choice.
If there
is any uncertainty about whether a remortgage or a secured
loan is better advice from an adviser should be sought.
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