Around one fifth of all personal loans are used to pay for home improvements, recent research has revealed.
Conducted by Sainsbury’s Loans, the study found that Britons are investing heavily in their properties and spending more money on home improvements. Indeed, 21 per cent of personal loans taken out with the supermarket’s finance arm were solely to pay for such projects this year. This represents a slight increase for the figure of 20.8 per cent recorded last year.
However, the average value of these personal loans was shown to have decreased from £8,827 last year to £8,318 this year.
Steven Baillie, head of loans at Sainsbury’s Finance, commented, “Our analysis suggests that UK homeowners are continuing to spend money on home improvements and the average spend is marginally more than last year.
“The decision to invest more in their homes could be due to a number of reasons, perhaps some are aiming to increase the value of their home, or maybe others have been unable to move up the property ladder so are improving their existing home until they can do so," he added.
He went on to say that people who are considering taking out a personal loan should be sure to shop around and get the best rate possible because this could save them a “considerable amount” in repayments.
