Guide to home improvement loans

Are you keen for extra space for a growing family, or desperate for a different kitchen - but can't afford to up sticks and move house? Maybe it's time to look at making home improvements and upgrading your current living environment to suit your needs? - whether it's adding an extension, or simply giving the bathroom a makeover and making it more practical.  The benefits of home improvements Making the changes you want could not only make you happier, but also possibly raise the value of your home when you come to sell. For example, a good extension or loft conversion that increases the floor-space in your home will tend to increase the value too - but whether this will add more than the cost of the works depends on what the market is like when you come to sell. Or you may opt for improvements such as central heating or double-glazing as general upgrades on your property. Meanwhile, decorating the home can be done reasonably cheaply but still make it a ...
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What is a secured loan?


What is a secured loan? 
A secured loan, also known as a homeowner loan, uses your home as security against the debt. Secured loans can be useful for those with poor credit ratings, but you must keep up repayments or the lender might make you sell your home to recoup what you owe.
Advantages of a secured loan
Homeowner, or secured, loans are available for amounts of between about £5,000 and £125,000. This makes them a good choice for anyone keen to borrow a larger amount.
The headline interest rates on the top secured loans also start at between 5% and 6%, although the total borrowing cost will often work out higher.
Another advantage is that the fixed monthly payments should make your repayment plan easier to manage.
Disadvantages of a secured loan
The amount you personally can borrow via a homeowner loan will depend on your income, your credit score and your existing credit commitments, as well as the amount of equity available in your property.
Even though a lender offers loans of up to £100,000, you may only be able to borrow a fraction of that amount as a result.a
As with personal loans, the interest rate you are offered will also vary depending on the state of your credit file.
Other disadvantages include that your property could be repossessed if you default on the repayments. That’s a hefty incentive to stay on track with your repayments.
Alternatives to a secured loan
An unsecured personal loan offering the chance to borrow up to £15,000 over five years, for example, is a popular alternative to a homeowner loan. Not only does this option avoid putting your home at risk, it may also come with even lower interest rates – if you can limit your borrowing to £15,000 and qualify for the market-leading deals.
However, borrowing more than £15,000 is more difficult – and often more expensive – via an unsecured personal loan.
The only real alternative for larger borrowers is therefore to look into remortgaging to free up some cash. Mortgage rates for those with a large deposit – or in other words a lot of equity – currently start at less than 2%.
But the downsides include potentially high upfront fees and the fact that remortgaging means paying interest for longer on the whole amount owed.
Finding the right secured loan
Secured loans deals, just like those available on other financial products such as credit cards and bank accounts, vary widely. When choosing a homeowner loan, shopping around for the cheapest deal is therefore the best way to ensure that you pay as little interest as possible.
You can do this quickly and easily by using the Money Supermarket secured loans channel to compare hundreds of different loans from a wide range of lenders.
The Compare secured loans tool can speed up the process of finding the best deals for your circumstances even more.
Money supermarket is a credit broker – this means we’ll show you products offered by lenders. We never take a fee from customers for this brooking service. Instead we are usually paid a fee by the lenders – though the size of that payment doesn’t affect how we show products to customers.


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