Worth installing new central heating for remortgage valuation?

Helmatron

Morning all.

We're coming to the end of our 2 year fixed nationwide mortgage, which was 95% LTV. I've used the Nationwide general house price index thingy (site won't let me post the link as a new user) and it's showing a 10% rise in prices for the area. Question is, how accurate will an actual evaluation be? For example we have an old central heating system with a hot water storage tank and a functional but outdated bathroom with no shower, but as my family are gas engineers / plumbers they can do a full re-install of the entire central heating system with a combi-boiler plus the bathroom at trade cost with no labour (so maybe £1.5k max plus a few beers!). We have the cash to cover this and will get it done anyway, i was wondering how likely it will be to alter any re-evaluation. I've heard stories of re-evaluations being done purely as a desk-study exercise based on local property prices. We've also redecorated the hall, front room and both bedrooms since moving in.

i don't know if we overpaid for the property in the first place - was marketed at 280k and we paid 283. Never had any problems with getting the original nationwide mortgage.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Keezing

If you give Nationwide a call they will give you an Index valuation over the phone. This will not take into account any home improvements.

If you disagree with their index valuation, you can pay for a formal valuation where someone will come out. Be aware this could come back lower than the index.

kingstreet

It won't make much difference.

If you are going back to Nationwide for a customer retention product (this is not a remortgage) the valuation will be estimated from the index and no inspection will be carried out.

If you did remortgage (that's a new mortgage from a new lender to repay the old one on the same property) you would get a reinspection but that may not be as good as the indexed valuation if your starting point was 95% and you've done nothing to add value, which usually means adding space, not new radiators.

davidmcn

I can't see there being a significant difference in value between a property with an older (but functional) CH system and a new system. One of these things which might make it more attractive to buyers but doesn't objectively increase the value.

Helmatron

ok thanks for the replies guys. I guess trying to get an improved rate with nationwide is the way forward then, especially if they're going to use the same index as I've just checked online. With the increase and a little extra from our savings (which I assume we could add as an over payment just before switching as it's fee-free up to 10% iirc) , it looks like we could reach 80% LTV.

I've been happy with Nationwide so far, and thinking about it as we've just had another child and my wife will only be going back part-time, not having to go through that whole income/stress-test process could be very beneficial.