Middle aged women borrowing most for home improvements
Middle aged women are taking out loans in huge numbers to fund home improvement frenzy, new figures released today reveal.
Women in their 40s are borrowing an average of €12,000 to fund home extensions and to pay for renovated fixtures and fittings.
The figures seem to indicate that the new 'must have' is home renovations, as middle aged women are forming the bulk of those that are borrowing, and represents one quarter of loans given by one financial lender.
GE Money said the surge of women in their 40s taking out home improvement loans was in addition to the thousands of people signing up for top-ups to their mortgage to fund changes to their houses.
Enda Treacy of GE Money said that a total of €8bn will be taken out in all types of loans this year, with borrowings for cars, home improvements and holidays the most popular.
"Borrowing for home improvements represents over 25% of all our personal loans. This is in line with industry trends and is in addition to those who re-mortgage for extensions and other structural improvements," he added.
Recent figures from the Irish Banking Federation showed that there was a 10% rise in the numbers of people re-mortgaging last year.
