| Loans - Lofty ambitions with lofts
Loft conversions can add around 100,000 to a home's value, according to Alliance & Leicester Personal Loans. Indeed, research carried out across England and Wales reveals how homeowners who add a dormer loft conversion to their house are likely to be in a win-win situation. It's cheaper than buying a bigger house, they can see the value of the property go through the roof and they could make significant savings compared to a further advance on a mortgage or a personal loan from the Big Four. Although there are regional price differences, the UK average cost of a dormer loft conversion is around 23,000 and can add 100,000 to the house's value. In London, dormer loft conversions to a three-bedroom home cost around 25,000, but could return a whopping potential profit of nearly 146,000 if the homeowner went on to sell their property.
6 Million Brits Consolidating Their Loans
The preferred method of debt consolidation in the UK is where unsecured personal loans are combined into one loan with a lower monthly payment. While this is a positive move in the short term, it can be fiscally devastating over the long-term if done in the wrong way. Unsecured personal loans are the preferred method of consolidating loans. The interest rate is normally lower than interest being charged on credit cards and store cards. Research from uSwitch.com revealed that a number of Brits who consolidate their loans continue to use their credit cards and store cards to create further debt. The number of UK consumers who apply for personal loans that are higher than the amount they need to consolidate their loans are using the extra money, not for wealth generating, but to maintain a higher lifestyle.
MORTGAGE DEMAND MAY BE SLOWING - BBA
Total sterling lending to the UK private sector showed a net underlying increase of 9.5bn (+0.7%) to 1,297bn. This compares with an underlying rise of 20.7bn in January and an average of 12.6bn over the previous six months. Net mortgage lending rose by an underlying 5.2bn. This was lower than both the increase of 5.4bn last month and the monthly average of 5.7bn over the previous six months. Unsecured personal lending fell by 0.2bn in February, compared with a fall of 0.3bn in January. Loans & overdrafts accounted for all of the fall, with credit card borrowing unchanged. There was a strong lending increase to real estate companies (+1.9bn) and lending to construction rose by 0.3bn, although there were decreases in lending to cold water supply companies (-0.3bn), wholesale & retail trade (-0.3bn) and agriculture & fishing (-0.2bn).
RedSofa launches THINK campaign.
Property investment company RedSofa have launched their latest marketing campaign - THINK. This campaign has been designed to highlight the growing trend of homeowners taking out further debt in order to prevent themselves falling into arrears with their existing monthly financial commitments.
[UKPRwire, Sat Mar 17 2007] Taking out further debt, which is usually secured against their home, is not a solution which is recommended, as this can cause further problems, as homeowners struggle to afford the increased monthly payments. By increasing the debt, homeowners just increase their risk of defaulting, and ultimately are more exposed to potentially having their home repossessed.
Research from Moneysupermarket.com has revealed that 28% of UK consumers have consolidated their debt by taking out a personal loan, 8.5 million of the 13 million consumers who consolidated in this way actually continued to borrow further through either their overdraft or additional loans.
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