We moved into our house just over four years ago and since buying it have spent a small fortune renovating!  Initially I kept a spreadsheet which let me know the exact amount.  But as it kept growing I found it too depressing, so I deleted it!  Afterwards I felt so much better.  It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders.  I love seeing improvements to our house but not tracking just how many thousands of pounds we have been spent doing them! I like to focus on more positive things like has the house gone up in value since we bought it.

Being an optimist, I hoped it had done of course, but it was nice finding a SunLife resource which gave me an estimate.  It was very simple to use, I just added my postcode and selected my address from the drop-down menu.  Then I held my breath as it quickly calculated the value.

Did my house go up in value?

I was delighted it said my house is estimated to have gone up £36,000 since I bought it.  Looking at my previous house and it had only gone up under half of that, so I think we made the right decision purchasing a bigger house when we did.  I really did let out a sigh of relief because its doesn’t seem so bad spending so much on renovations when the house has gone up in value.

Use the tool to check the value of your property

Have a look at the how much my house has made me tool if you are curious to see how well your own property is doing.  Hopefully it will be good news like me.  It really spurs you on when you realise you have extra equity in your house, whether its to help pay for further renovations or to plan for your retirement.  Someone came to the house recently when we wanted to swap mortgages to get a better deal and he was quite negative about big properties and it was all a bit deflating.  So, this has cheered me up no end!

When I retire

In terms of when we retire its great to think that extra value has been unlocked in our property.  We will probably downsize eventually.  It is a very big house and the additional money will help fund us in our old age.  Although the boys love the family home and would probably prefer if we kept it.  I guess we have more options now we know the house hasn’t lost any money!

My parents always had a sensible approach to their finances.  Thankfully they are enjoying a comfortable retirement.  I want to be in a similar position and hope that we are already doing well given that we have more equity in our property.  With raising costs its important to plan ahead.  Then you don’t have to panic when your income reduces when you retire.  It helps to have a financial plan early on, I am sure when I retire I will want to have a good standard of living, travel and spoil future grandchildren so I need to continue to find the best ways to make our money work for us.  I am glad the house hasn’t ended up being a costly mistake.  As that would have really set us back when we came to retire.