The lender’s research also reveals that British homeowners invested £58 billion in improvements to their homes last year – revealing that loans taken out for that purpose were money well spent.

Direct Line found that more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of homeowners are also planning to undertake more home improvements over the next year, with more than half (53 per cent) of them doing so in order to increase the value of their property.

Our findings show that homeowners are planning to pay for their property makeovers in a variety of ways – many people are going to dip into their savings to make changes, almost one in 10 are going to finance the improvements with a personal loan and four per cent are intending to remortgage,” said Anthony Rafferty, commercial director of Direct Line Loans.

Painting and decorating is the top choice for homeowners with improvement aspirations, with 52 per cent intending to get out the brushes; 13 per cent are looking at installing new kitchens and five per cent are considering extensions and loft renovations.

Click here to compare the best loans to get on with home improvements.

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