Home improvements: personal loan or secured?
The same euros two ways: unsecured, dearer and shorter; secured on your home, lighter each month and longer. See which one costs less by the end.
Personal loan
APRC of 8,9%
Total paid on the personal loan
Secured on your home
20 years at 3,5%
Total paid when secured on your home
Includes tax and the mortgage costs
Difference overall
Secured on your home eases the month by €244,67 and costs €2676,53 more by the end. Decide with both numbers in front of you.
Figures and tables for 2026. Indicative result — confirmed by the bank and by the State services at the time of the transaction.
To use this simulator you need to know
- What the works cost, with a quote in hand
- Over how many years you can repay without security
- The rate you are offered with and without your home as security
- Whether the home is yours and already has a mortgage — it changes what is possible
- Whether the works are on the home you live in — it changes the tax on the interest
What this result includes — and what it does not
This result is indicative and is there to help you get your bearings. The final figures are confirmed by the bank and by the State services at the time of the transaction — and our credit adviser checks them with you, at no cost.
A personal loan pays consumer credit Stamp Duty (1.76%); secured on your home, it pays 0.6%. Interest on works to the home you live in is exempt on both routes — the exemption depends on the purpose, and the bank may ask you to declare it. Outside your own home, interest pays 4%.
Not included: the insurance the bank may require — life and home insurance, above all on the secured route — or arrangement fees. They add to the total of each route.
The secured route has costs a personal loan does not — valuation, deed and mortgage registration — and they weigh more when the works are small.
Banco de Portugal recommends that personal loans do not exceed 7 years. For duly documented energy-transition works, the term can reach 10.
Frequently asked questions
These almost always come next
How much it costs to buy a home
IMT, Stamp Duty and the deed. The money nobody counts and that is missing at the end.
Open simulatorWhat will my monthly instalment be?
The monthly instalment, the total interest and what the term does to both.
Open simulatorYour debt-to-income ratio and how much you can borrow
The debt-to-income ratio, the instalment that fits and the house price it reaches.
Open simulator