The recent global financial crisis has seen a change of emphasis for homeowners. Instead of remortgaging their properties to release capital to buy investment property, more and more people are borrowing additional funds secured against their home in order that they can undertake improvements to add value to their main residence.

As with all major expenses, you should undertake plenty of research and planning before spending several thousand pounds on home improvements. Building an extension or adding a conservatory is a big step and you need to be sure that you're doing the right thing.

For example, one of the first steps that you should take is to ensure you have the correct planning approval for the work. Whilst some extensions and conservatories do not require planning permission, larger constructions will require you to go through the planning process. Changes that directly affect your neighbours - such as their privacy or natural light - may result in an objection that can significantly affect your improvement plans.

One of the main factors that will affect whether you are granted planning permission is whether your proposed ideas match the local area. If you live in a traditional village for instance, it may not be seen as acceptable to add extremely modern exteriors to your property.

If adding value is important to you, remember to take into account the value of other houses on your street and in your neighbourhood. If the most expensive house on your street is worth GBP250,000 it is likely that your house will be worth no more, irrespective of the amount you spend on lavish internal or external improvements.

Most houses need some work from time to time and so you will always have to spend money on keeping your house up to date. However, when considering larger projects it may be important to you that you add more value than the additional loan or remortgage you take out to pay for the work.

When updating your property, you do also need to keep in mind whether the new additions are universal, or in other words, if they would be attractive to the majority of buyers. It would not be a good idea to do anything too eccentric for example, as some people may not like this so it may make it more difficult to sell the property in future.

When people are looking at a potential property, they think about whether they could live in it as it is, rather than if they changed it, so by creating a simple interior will make it more popular.

When using a remortgage to fund home improvements, make sure that you choose kitchens and bathrooms with mainstream colours and designs. Stamping your personality on a room is likely to put off buyers who don't share your interior design tastes.

By remortgaging to fund home improvements, you can potentially add thousands to the value of your home, which will help to avoid negative equity and will be far more of an investment as the returns will be much higher. As lenders are now offering more remortgage funding, it is the perfect time to get your hands on that locked up equity and create the property you've always dreamed of.