Equity release guides
Every guide on the site, in the order most people need them: the options, the money, and doing it.
The options
Equity release explained
What it is, who it is for, the two kinds, and the five protections every plan should have.
Read →Lifetime mortgages explained
The main form of equity release: how the loan works, roll-up, drawdown, repayments, rates and the end of the plan.
Read →Home reversion plans
Selling a share of your home for a lump sum and a rent-free lease. Certainty for the family, at a price.
Read →Retirement interest-only mortgages
Pay the interest every month so the debt never grows; the loan is repaid when you die or go into care.
Read →Remortgage or further advance
The cheapest and often fastest way to release equity, if you have the income to pay it back monthly.
Read →Secured loans (second charge)
A separate loan behind your mortgage: quicker than remortgaging and leaves a cheap fixed rate alone.
Read →Bridging loans
Money in days rather than weeks, at a price. Only for a short gap with a certain way to repay.
Read →Selling or downsizing instead
Releasing the lot by moving to a cheaper home. No debt, no interest, and a lot of upheaval.
Read →The money
How much could I release?
The age table lenders use, what health does to it, and what you are left with after a mortgage is cleared.
Read →How fast can it be done?
Realistic timescales for each option, what causes delays, and the six things that make it quicker.
Read →What equity release costs
Set-up fees, the interest rate, and what rolling up does to £50,000 over ten, fifteen and twenty years.
Read →Equity release and inheritance
What the family gets, inheritance protection, and why some people release equity to reduce an inheritance tax bill.
Read →Equity release and benefits
Pension Credit, council tax reduction and care funding: how a lump sum in the bank changes things.
Read →Doing it
The process, step by step
Every stage from the first phone call to money in the bank, and what you need at each.
Read →Questions to ask an adviser
Twenty questions on the adviser, the plan, the rate, the charges and the alternatives, with the answers you want to hear.
Read →The pros and the cons
Honestly. What people are glad of, what they regret, and the questions that would have caught it.
Read →Drawdown vs lump sum
Why taking the money in stages is usually cheaper, with a worked example.
Read →Early repayment charges
What you would pay to get out early, fixed vs gilt-linked, and what is waived.
Read →Equity Release Council protections
The five product standards, what they guarantee, and how to check a plan meets them.
Read →Ready to talk to someone who can actually do it?
We introduce you to a qualified, FCA-authorised equity release adviser who will look at every option, tell you how much you could release and how fast, and never charge you for the first conversation. No obligation.