Equity Release
What is equity release?
Equity Release helps homeowners release capital tied up in their home without the need to take out a traditional mortgage. Depending on your age and the value of your property you can choose how much equity to release. The released capital is in the form of cash and you are therefore free to choose what to do with it.
Unlike a traditional mortgage, with equity release no repayments are made until death or if you move into long term care, in which case the house is sold and the loan repaid. With equity release there is no standard plan, all of them are slightly different as it is a complex financial tool. As discussed above, your age, the value of the property, where it’s located, in what state of repair, and many other factors all have to be considered.
Benefits of equity release
For many elderly homeowners the benefits of equity release outweigh the negatives, one overwhelming benefit of equity release is brought about by rising property values over the last several decades. However on one hand it is likely your home has increased in value significantly. But on the other, the capital increase is tied up and doesn't filter through in hard cash.
Before equity release schemes the only real way to get the built up capital out of your home was to sell and move down the property ladder. But this causes problems because many people viewed their property as more of a home, perhaps becoming attached to both it and the surrounding area over the years.
So the real benefits of equity release is that nothing changes. You still live in your home but the money released can help to provide a retirement income. However, equity release schemes are not right for everyone. The disadvantage is that they’re often inflexible and somewhat expensive. It is therefore advised that prospective applicants look at and explore other ways of raising cash.
