Mortgage misery means it's makeover time

Falling house prices, plummeting home loans and a stagnant housing market can only mean one thing - most of us either can't or won't be moving in the near future. So staying put and doing up where we currently live is now top of most the agenda for most people.

But new research carried out by Alliance & Leicester Personal Loans shows that Brits estimate that it will, on average, cost almost £12,000 to get their home up to the standard they would be happy with.

The most popular home improvement is to simply re-decorate the rooms we already have. But although this is relatively cheap improvement topped our list other more costly enhancements are also high on our home improvement agenda. These include fitting a new bathroom suite, re-carpeting the entire house and landscaping the garden.

While we seem to want to make our living space more comfortable, savvy homeowners also need to take into account which improvements will increase the value of our property in case we want to sell in the future. The most profitable improvements in this respect are converting the loft, re-fitting the kitchen, adding a new bathroom suite, landscaping the garden and having double glazing fitted. But if you make the wrong decision it can end up being a costly mistake.

For more info visit Alliance-leicester.co.uk/loans.