How to Finance Your Home Renovation | Your Finance Adviser

As the window begins to close to access the Government’s HomeBuilder grant, there is still enough time to capitalise if you’re looking to build or substantially renovate.

Given that the requirements are high for renovators, many people might be looking to borrow in order to fund their home renovation.

There are a number of finance options you can consider, and you should speak to your commercial mortgage broker about what is the right option for you.

Using Your Equity

If you’ve owned your current home or investment property for some time, then you might be able to use some of the equity that has been created, if your property has increased in value over time.

Lenders will generally let you borrow 80% of the value of the home, which means that if you have enough equity in your home – you can access it.

Accessing spare equity is generally an easy process and one that your broker can help you with. There might be application fees attached with applying for a new loan, however, interest rates will generally be lower than other options.

Redraw

If you’ve been diligently making your repayments and have contributed more than the minimum, you might be able to use those funds to help pay for a renovation.

Many loan products have redraw facilities available to you, which means you can simply withdraw the amount of money over and above the minimum required repayments. This is usually a quick and easy process and you don’t need to apply for another loan. However, your repayments will likely be higher as your loan balance will increase if you’re going to redraw.

Line of Credit

Another option, if you already own property, is to get a line of credit. A line of credit is like a large credit card, which gives you access to a certain amount of funds that you can use at your discretion.

You are normally only charged interest on the amount of money that you actually use, so this can be a flexible option. However, this flexibility also likely means that the interest rate attached to it will be higher than a standard home loan.

Personal Loan

If you don’t have any equity available to you, that doesn’t mean you are out of options. You can look to get a personal loan, which you can then in turn use to renovate.

A personal loan might work if you only need a small amount of money to fund the renovation, however, the fact that it is generally unsecured, means the interest rates will be higher.

Construction Loan

If you are looking at taking on a major structural renovation, you could look to getting a construction loan. A construction loan differs slightly to a normal home loan in that it is drawn down in progress payments as the project proceeds to pay the builder.

Generally, you will need to have council-approved building plans and a fixed price building contract from a registered builder before you get started.

Interest rates on construction loans are normally higher than standard home loans, however, repayments are usually interest only and revert to a standard principal and interest loan upon completion.

Get finance for home renovations from YFA

There are several options available to finance your home renovation, including personal loans, construction loans, using equity, redraw and line of credit. But which one suits your requirements should be best left to the counsel of your mortgage brokers and lending specialists. YFA is one of the trusted home loan experts in Australia, who can guide you through the entire process of financing home renovation. Know some of the major advantages of taking assistance of YFA experts:

  • We will find a better rate for your loan so that you can save on interest with a lower fixed or variable interest rate.
  • Our process is simple and it is easy to apply online, over the phone and in the branch.
  • We can help you settle things in less than a week so that you save time and effort.
  • We have access to 30 lenders and 1,000 different loan products through our well-informed lending specialists
  • We provide assistance at a time and place most convenient for you and your family
  • Tailor-made services that are obligation-free
  • We keep our clients up to date on loan products and their risk appetites