Personal loans companies showed no falling sign in number of home improvement loans taken out under economic climate. The unaffected figure led to new research, which revealed that one in four British homeowners planned to increase their house sizes during economic downturn.

The new study by Personal Loans companies reported a surprisingly increasing trend of people improving their home conditions under recession.

This home improvement trend is said to be triggered by the decrease in house prices over the past year. According to the latest report from Nationwide, the average house price has dropped by an annual rate of 15% in April 2009. Almost 5 million people have decided deliberately not to sell their property under the economic downturn. The massive decrease in average house price seems to be the reason for holding homeowners back from listing their houses in the property market. Consequently, homeowners now treat their property more as a “home” than an “investment” and would be willing to spend more money on renovation and home improvement. As data showed, of those who were asked in a survey, 57% said they are trying to “create a nicer place to live” by renovating their home; while only 32% carry out a refurbishment for adding value to the property.

Furthermore, when asked about the purpose for the extended room, 23% responded to building an extra room for “entertainment”; whereas 15% extended rooms are built for “office”. Report also revealed regional analysis on this matter: more people in South East England aimed to add an extra room for entertainment purpose; whilst more people from the North build an extra room as an additional bedroom and sleeping area; in addition, most interviewees from Scotland decided to dedicate the construction of an extra room to work as home office.

All in all, renovating and building an extension of the property can provide a more comfortable living condition to homeowners, which also adds value to the property; thus homeowners could benefit from renovation in short and long run.