Homeowners
Extend it, convert the loft, take it back to brick, or borrow against it to do all three. The costing is the part everybody skips, and it is the part that decides whether the job was worth doing.
13 calculators
A refurbishment priced line by line rather than off an average, an extension against the value it has to reach, and what a new mortgage deal costs against the rate you would otherwise roll onto.
What will a lender actually lend me?
Open →What actually reaches my account, and what does it cost to repay?
Open →What does a new rate save against doing nothing?
Open →What will this actually cost, space by space?
Open →Does this extension pay for itself?
Open →What is the profit on refurbishing this and selling it?
Open →Every one of these is an estimate and none of it is advice. Mortgages, bridging and development finance are arranged through regulated brokers and lenders. Purchase tax covers England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, each under its own regime; anything else to do with tax belongs with your accountant, and the figures here are a starting point for that conversation rather than a substitute for it. Nothing you type is sent anywhere: the arithmetic runs in your browser and stays there.
The honest bit
Every percentage in circulation traces back to an estate agent's press release or an insurer's survey, not to what houses on your street actually sold for. We went looking for a number we could stand behind and there is not one.
So the build cost calculator does the half that is knowable. Build costs are published, they are well evidenced, and they are all in there including the fees people forget: planning, drawings, the structural engineer, building control and a contingency that is not optional.
The other half is a local question. The best house on your road has a price, that price is a ceiling, and no amount of work goes through it. Put your own figure in and the tool tells you what it has to reach. If it does not reach, we would rather you found out here than eleven weeks into a build.
Said plainly: a rewire adds nothing on its own. Neither does a roof. They are the price of admission for everything that does.
Four things people ring us about
Which is the point. A broker prices the borrowing, a builder prices the development, an agent prices the sale, and none of them is looking at the whole thing.
A fixed rate ending, or money tied up in the walls.
We put your position to lenders and brokers who price this kind of case properly, including the ones that never appear on a comparison site. Residential, buy to let and portfolios.
Said plainly: We introduce and coordinate. The advice and the mortgage come from a regulated broker or lender, never from us.
How finance works →The plan is right and the mortgage will not stretch to it.
Bridging and development finance against the finished value rather than the state it is in today, drawn in stages as the development is signed off, with the exit planned before a penny is drawn.
Said plainly: Bridging is quoted monthly and the headline rate is not the cost. Fees, retained interest and an overrun are, and we will show you all three.
How finance works →You want the development done once, properly, at a price that holds.
Extensions, loft conversions, kitchens, bathrooms, rewires and full refurbishments, under our own trade contracts. Open book, at trade prices, with our margin stated rather than buried.
Said plainly: An estimate from the trades who would do the development, not a figure from somebody who then goes looking for a builder.
How we build →You are moving on but the house is not the problem.
Let it and manage it, lease the whole thing to us on a fixed monthly figure, or sell it on a date you choose. The same people who did the development handle what happens after it.
Said plainly: A fixed monthly figure is lower than the best month you could get on the open market. It is also every month.
Letting and exit →Free, no obligation
What the property is worth now, what it would be worth improved, what the development costs, what the borrowing costs, and what it lets or sells for at the end. In two working days, in writing, whichever route it points at.
Get the planWe are not financial advisers. Mortgages and loans are arranged through regulated brokers and lenders, and anything to do with tax belongs with your accountant.
Building
That is the standard we hold ourselves to and we measure it on every job: our refurbishment figure at appraisal against our own tender, target within 8%. We work open book, at trade prices, with the procurement margin stated as a percentage before the first order.
Yes. You hold the trade contracts and we run procurement, programme and cost control. It prices below full contractor delivery because you are carrying the contract risk.
