Brits spend £1,509 a year fixing their home
Friday, 01 December 2006 12:00
In the last year UK residents spent an average £1,509 on tradespeople to work on their homes, research from Moneyexpert.com shows.
But this is just the average figure, with 1.2 million homeowners spending more than £10,000 on their properties in the last year.
And with many homeowners funding these repairs with personal loans, choosing the wrong provider could see UK residents wasting up to £2,500 on interest payments.
"Home improvements are one of the most popular reasons for taking out a personal loan," said Sean Gardner, chief executive of Moneyexpert.
"But when people go for major renovations and consider borrowing more than £10,000, they need to ensure they get good value for money.
"Personal loans can vary in price dramatically - you could end up paying back as much as a quarter of the amount you borrowed in extra repayments unless you research the market carefully."
Calculations by Moneyexpert show on a loan of £10,000 over four years, the total amount repaid can differ by as much as £2,502 - or £52 a month.
"Of course, there are other considerations such as early redemption fees and minimum income requirements - taking out a personal loan should not be a snap decision," Mr Gardner said.
As well as the 1.2 million people a year who spent more than £10,000 on their home, 2.4 million UK residents spent more than £5,000 on their home in the last 12 months, and almost one person in four spent between £500 and £3,000 on their home.
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