While most of us hope the pensions and life savings will pay our way in our retirement 1 in 3 plan to part fund using their home.
Equity release schemes unlock value in your home but they are complex and many people seek advice to see if they are right for them.
Conveyancing fees and remortgage fees can obviously form a part of this process.
There are basically three main equity release schemes lifetime mortgages,drawdown or flexible lifetime mortgage or home reversions.
The lifetime mortgage will let you borrow a lump sum against the value of your property whilst allowing you to stay in your home.
Unlike the typical mortgage, you don't make regular payments. Instead, the interest charge is compounded and added to your loan. The loan and interest is repaid when the house is sold as a result of death or if you leave for medical reasons typically when entering a care home,
Some of the schemes will also allow you to pay off the interest each month, but also remember conveyancing fees will form part of this process.
Draw down or flexible lifetime mortgages the dominant form of equity release and the leading growth area making up 61% of the market identical to a lifetime mortgage scheme except that rather than just having access to an initial lump sum the lender also offers a draw down reserve.
Arranged at the outset this allows you to withdraw small amounts at short notice you only pay interest on what you borrow not the full reserve. Home reversion schemes which are typically only offered to those over the age of 65, lets you sell a percentage of your home to the provider for a lump sum, the difference between this and a lifetime mortgage is that you are effectively selling a portion of your house rather than borrowing money this means that you have certainty over the percentage of your property you will be left owning when you die.
With a lifetime mortgage interest can keep rolling up until you owe the entire value of your property
With a reversion plan you know that if you sell 50% of the property you're estate will always be left with the remaining 50%, but remember conveyancing fees will also form part of this process and other fees must also be taken into consideration.