What Are My Remortgage Options?

My mortgage deal is coming to an end. What should I do?

This is a really popular question at the moment, and the first thing everyone should do is check when their current mortgage deal is ending and put that in the diary. Don’t let it sneak up on you. 

Once you’ve established your mortgage deal end date, engage with a mortgage broker to assess the situation. One option is to remain with your current lender, looking at what they would offer as a product switch to retain your business. But you should compare that to the whole of the mortgage market to find the most appropriate deal based on your circumstances. 

What we’re finding is that people who leave things too late can cost themselves a lot of money at the moment, especially if they revert to very high variable rates. We’re recording this in September 2023 and we’re on an upward curve of interest rates. So if you leave it longer, you’re potentially going to get a typically higher interest rate than if you secured a deal six months ago. 

You can get a mortgage offer with six months validity on it, so if you were set to complete in September 2023, the interest rate you would have got in March would be a lot lower than if you’d started that process in July or August. 

So, establish when your deal is ending. If a good mortgage broker arranged your current deal, they will contact you seven or six months out anyway. But acting as soon as possible is really important.

Is now a good time to remortgage? 

The period we’re going through at the moment is proving quite challenging for people. Clients are coming off historically low interest rates – some people have been paying less than 1%, while many are at around 2%. 

These clients are finding that there is a payment shock – their mortgage payment is increasing quite significantly in some cases. 

In terms of whether it’s a good time to remortgage, it’s all about the timing. The best time to secure a new interest rate is six to seven months out from the end of your deal. As the last year has shown, waiting could make it more expensive for you. That’s not always going to be the case going forward, but a good mortgage broker will continue to assess things for you. 

You can always walk away from a mortgage offer if it hasn’t started and something cheaper becomes available. But you can avoid risk by securing yourself a deal as early as possible.

How quickly can you remortgage?

It will depend on your situation. For very easily underwritten cases, some lenders can get a mortgage offer out on the same day you apply. They can access your banking information and see that the income you’ve declared is what is being paid into your bank every month. They can see it’s from the employer you say you work for, and there’s a history of that. 

They’re able to do an electronic valuation on your property if it’s a low loan to value mortgage, and if you’ve got lots of equity in it, there’s very little risk to the new lender. Everything’s automated and they can just generate the mortgage offer within a few hours. 

Where that isn’t the case, it might take a week or two to get a mortgage offer, and perhaps longer if a physical valuation needs to take place. Then obviously you have the legal process. Even if you get a mortgage offer the same day, there’s still the legal work involving redemption statements for your current lender. 

A couple of weeks is the fastest, otherwise the average is around a month to six weeks.

Can I remortgage before my deal ends?

Technically you can, providing you meet all the criteria. Your case would go through very enhanced compliance checks to make sure that it’s the right advice for you, especially if you’re leaving a very low interest rate and paying a penalty to do that, as it doesn’t really make financial sense. 

Technically you could do it, but there would have to be a very good reason. 

Can I move to a new rate when my current mortgage deal ends?

In most cases, yes, but there will always be some exceptions. For example, most lenders will offer a retention rate to you. That would be classed as a product switch, a product transfer or a retention deal. 

There will still be some criteria for you to meet to get that rate. Usually your mortgage account will need to be up to date, not be in arrears and there have been no issues with you paying the mortgage. 

You could also look to move to another lender, based on income, affordability, Loan to Value and all of the usual mortgage criteria. 

Can I extend my mortgage term?

If you’re staying with your existing lender, that’s probably going to be more tricky. They may or may not offer that. 

If you’re going to remortgage, then obviously we can support you within the criteria of the lenders. Typically, most lenders will remortgage people up to retirement, and 70 is now a common age to retire. 

If the term doesn’t take you beyond 70 then you can extend. There’s also the possibility to extend the mortgage beyond 70 – but more questions will be asked. Some lenders will take you to 75 and beyond, as long as you have the ability to pay the mortgage at that point. 

Again, it’s looking at whether extending the mortgage term is the right advice for you and what your plans are.