A quarter of home refit projects go over budget say experts
January 16, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Banking
Up to one in four of home makeover projects end up going over budget, according to figures from Halifax Home Insurance. 
An estimated million under-budgeters have to find an extra £4,690 to afford £10,000 which is the average cost of completing a home improvement project.
This works out at a total annual budgeting shortfall of approximately £4.7 billion.
Martyn Foulds, senior claims manager at Halifax Home Insurance, said: “It’s interesting to see that the major reason for spiraling costs is often due to homeowners adding extras to a project half way through.”
He added: “Clearly it is all too easy to get carried away with adding more expensive fixtures and fittings as the project unfolds.”
The most commonly cited reason for escalating costs, from over half of the survey’s respondents, was upgrading to higher specification fixtures and fittings.
A further 20 per cent said costs had risen after building works had unearthed problems with their house that needed urgent attention.
Meanwhile, more research from Halifax has found that over two thirds of respondents believe the government could be doing more about the number of vacant properties in the UK.
