SAVING for a deposit for a house may seem like a daunting enough task – but new research suggests you’ll need to squeeze another £10,000 out of your wallet just to put your own stamp on a property.

And that’s on top of the costs you’ve already forked out in order to move.

A study from Aviva has found that home buyers spend £10,010 doing up their homes in the first year of moving in.

The research was based on 1,000 Britons who have bought a home in the past five years.

For some, the costs can be far more expensive than £10,000, with those who extended their home after moving paying more than £17,000 on average to do so.

New kitchens and bathrooms are popular, with 18 per cent of people saying they put in a new kitchen, and the same number saying they installed a new bathroom in their first year in their home.

The average amount spent on a new kitchen was more than £6,000, while people forked out more than £3,000 for a bathroom, typically.

One in four (24 per cent) invested in new furniture as a more straightforward way of updating their new home, while one in six (17 per cent) bought new technology, such as a new TV or surround sound system.

An ambitious six per cent of people surveyed said they built an extension.

Meanwhile, many people are digging into debt in order to make their property perfect.

While nearly two-thirds (63 per cent) of those surveyed used their savings to spruce up their property, just under one in five (19 per cent) had put their expenses on credit cards and 10 per cent relied on store credit.

Furthermore, less than half of recent movers said they had updated their home insurance to reflect changes to their property.

This could leave some people under-insured if they have made significant purchases to put the finishing touches to their home.

Adam Beckett, propositions director of Aviva said: “If people are making a lot of new purchases, we’d encourage them to review their home contents insurance, just to make sure they’re adequately covered in case anything did go wrong.

“And if people are making significant changes, such as building an extension or a loft conversion, we’d also recommend they get in touch with their insurer as this could mean they need to update their buildings insurance.”

The survey found there were some features that home buyers were particularly keen to change. The top 10 “must-change” features were: 1. Smelly carpets 2. Dated kitchen 3. Nicotine-stained walls 4. Single-glazed windows 5. Busy wallpaper 6. Coloured bathroom suites 7. Patterned carpets 8. Poor outdoor maintenance, for example guttering 9. Overgrown gardens 10. Dated features