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Planning it and paying for it

The home improvement process

Don't know where to start?

From inspiration through to planning permission, our tips have got you covered.

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Finding inspiration

There are plenty of places on the web to find inspiration for your new home. Pinterest has boards on everything from paint colours to floor plans.

Lots of websites offer planning tools to help you and there are also tools to help you work out costs.

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Get designing

There are apps and tools to help you design your home with the improvements you want to make.

Autodesk Homestyler lets you upload a picture of your room then drag and drop design features to see what it would look like. You can save your designs and even share them on social media.

This is one of a number of free tools available, so look around to see what would work best for you.

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Working out the cost and value

Work out what the work you want to do to your home is likely to cost, then you can use our budget calculator to see how you can afford to pay for it.

You can also check the value that different types of work is likely to add to your property using our guide.

Make your dream home a reality

We could support your dream with home loan. Representative 6.6% APR available on loans between £7,500 and £14,950.

Other loan amounts are available at alternative rates. Our rates depend on your circumstances and loan amount and may differ from the representative APR.

Getting permission

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Think about planning permission and building regulations approval

  • The type of permission you need depends on where your property is, your local authority and the kind of work you're doing
  • To see if you need permission you can check the Planning Portal or contact your local planning authority
  • Read more about planning permission in our guide.
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