Adding an extra room in your loft or just carrying out routine maintenance on an aging property is expensive and will need financing; the easiest way to refresh a tired looking house is to arrange a home improvement loan. Very few people want to attempt many of these home improvements themselves so tradesmen such as electricians, plumbers and carpenters will need to be employed.

This type of home improvement loan has only one purpose, to improve your home but fortunately you do have the option of it either being a secured loan on your property or a loan where no security is required. A loan that does not require equity allows new homeowners to apply even if they just bought their home. This type of zero equity financing usually has a fixed interest rate of up to 15 years.

The only condition made on no equity finance is that the owners must have a joint income which is lower than the county limit where the property is but reaches the limit specified by the lender. Whilst the lenders do not hand over the money without making some checks first about the property and the applicant, these are just to provide some security for the lender as these loans are processed quite quickly.

The difference with a secured home improvement loan means the value of the property is taken into account so when there is spare equity, the loan is basically taken out of this. This type of loan is much quicker to organize and because the house is being used to secure the loan, it benefits from better terms and lower interest rates.

Obviously the amount you are able to borrow using a secured loan will depend on the value of your home. The lenders need to be assured that there is in fact equity in your property and that any loans already outstanding will not interfere with any new arrangement made by them if they agree to a loan.

After this has taken place, the lenders will put a package forward which may not necessarily be for the full amount the homeowner wanted. Normally a lender will lend to the upper limit of the house valuation but a few lenders go much further and provide loans up to 125 percent of the valuation.

An equity based loan can be risky if you arrange to lend an amount greater than you can comfortably afford so consider this carefully as you may end up handing your beautiful home over to your creditors. So be careful how much money you agree on a home improvement loan and wherever possible only borrow enough to carry out essential repairs.