Finding the money to pay for home improvement projects can be a challenge at any time of your life, but once you’ve retired and have stopped receiving a regular income from work it might seem even more difficult to find the cash for larger scale projects.
One option that is open to over-55s is equity release, whereby you access some of the money tied up in your property.
And it seems that many people who go down the equity release route are using that money to improve their homes.
In fact, Mortgage Introducer revealed that, according to research by Canada Life, home improvements were the most popular use of equity release funds, with 48 per cent using them for this purpose.
Within that group, the majority chose to carry out projects to make their homes more comfortable, or larger. This included installing conservatories or extensions, the news provider noted.
The second most popular reason for equity release was to clear a mortgage, followed by using the money to clear unsecured debt. But it isn’t all about using the money on practical things, 22 per cent use their funds to pay for holidays, while 16 per cent use it for gifting to family.
Just over one-fifth (21 per cent) use the money they release for day-to-day living costs.
Alice Watson, head of marketing and communications at Canada Life Home Finance, commented: “These figures demonstrate the flexibility of equity release as a tool for financial planning in retirement, both as a means to unlock wealth in the immediate term and with a view to the future.
If you are thinking about using some or all of your equity release cash to add a conservatory or orangery to your home, you’ll need to plan ahead to make sure you get a good builder to do the work.
Research from the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) recently revealed that homeowners should expect to wait an average of at least four months for a quality builder to be available to carry out the work. For some projects, such as extensions, it can be even longer, up to seven months according to the FMB.
That means you need to think carefully about your timelines. For instance, if you want to have a new extension finished in time for Christmas you should start by May at the latest.
Brian Berry, chief executive of the FMB, commented: “If homeowners want to work with a good builder, they should be expecting to wait at least four months and as a general rule, the larger the project, the longer the wait.”
Of course, you may not want your new conservatory for a specific date and will simply be happy to get the additional space for your home, where you can enjoy your garden come rain or shine, whenever your builder is ready to complete the project.
If you’re looking at installing conservatories in Worsley, get in touch with us today to find out about the kinds of conservatories we can install, as well as to get a rough timeline for your project.
