Who is equity release for?
Typically, you have to be at least 55 years old to be able to use an equity release product.
It’s a way to help those who own their own home but may need more cash. You don’t need to have paid off your mortgage.
Bear in mind, it can affect any benefits that you might be receiving, so always disclose these upfront with your adviser.
It’s always important that you’ve considered all options first, such as downsizing. Our advisers will make sure that they’re confident equity release is right for you, before talking through any equity release products with you.
Is equity release safe?
All the lenders we work with at Later Life Borrowing are members of the Equity Release Council.
They promote the highest standards regarding providing equity release advice and crucially they ensure all their lenders sign up to a ‘no negative equity guarantee’. This means that you can never be kicked out of your own home.
All our advisers at Later Life Borrowing will sit down with you to ensure that you fully understand all the implications of what you’re doing. They’ll only recommend an equity release product if they’re confident it’s right for you.
How much does equity release cost?
There are two main ways of doing equity release.
Firstly, is where the interest charged rolls up. This very broadly means that the money you owe by taking it out of your home will double every 10-12 years or so.
As an example, if you take out £20,000 from a £200,000 property today, you have £180,000 left to go to your estate. In 10 years’ time that will, £20,000 will have doubled to £40,000, meaning that there will be £160,000 to go to your estate, assuming house prices haven’t moved at all.
That’s a very rough example, but hopefully helps to illustrate things.
Secondly, you have the option to make repayments.
This will help manage the debt that is secured against your home, either by making payments that purely cover the interest (therefore the debt isn’t increasing) or by actually repaying the loan and therefore reducing the size of the debt to be left against your estate.
If you do want a product that allows you to make payments, this may be affected by your income as lenders need to be sure it’s affordable for you.
Either way, interest rates will be fixed or have a maximum cap that they cannot exceed for the entirety of the loan.
We typically charge a fee of £695 for our equity release service. This will always be discussed with you upfront.
