Has anyone done equity release?

And, you can sometimes get fixed rates and rates are low!

Dont ring that man on Sky TV.

You can pay the interest off - you do not have to roll it up.

You can transport it to another property unless the percentages are not right.

You dont to have pay it back unless one of you dies or you go into a care home!

I'm sure lots of people have said this above but I'm roasting a chicken and haven't read everything - sorry!!!

If you can downsize the normal open market way you'll end up with more cash.

Then down the line you could do equity release on your smaller place if needed

If you have no one to leave the house to there is a case to liberate the cash and spend it, but a better way is to sell and move somewhere smaller.

At present the housing market is on hold, nobody can predict the future value of property, maybe some kind of order may return in 12 months. At present the best bet is take a mortgage holiday, maybe you have pension pots you can dip into, tough it out and cross bridges when you need to !.

My friend took £20K equity from her house when she retired 17 years ago to have some work done on her house. I couldn't for the life of me understand why she did it as she had enough in her pension 'lump sum' to cover it.
The debt is now over £60k and she bitterly regrets it.

My mum and step father took out equity release. They were concerned about there being little or no inheritance for my brother, me and our step brother but we told them it wasn't about us when they'd gone, it was about them now.

In answer to a few posters above You can take equity release with you when you move as long as the value is there in the new property and you will be given a projection before you sign of exactly how much you will owe each year assuming you make no interest payments.

It depends whether you want to pay off any interest or not. You can borrow around a third of the value of your home. So if you borrow £100k and repay nothing in say 20 years time you'll owe everything to the loan company but if you pay the interest each year which is around 5% you'll only owe what you borrowed. The best way to get the full facts is to contact one of the companies and get the full facts and decide for yourself.

My parents did it in 2000. The took £25000. When we had to sell their house last year after Dad died we had to pay back over £82000! What was left had to go on Mams care home fees. I dont know if things have changed since they did it but they would have been shocked at how much was due.

I think theres a new one where you can pay the interest on the loan monthly and even lump sums off the loan .Our friend has an interest only mortgage coming to an end and she s considering equity release ,she's not using a financial advisor though she was recommended to use a good mortgage broker .

my dil and his wife did it, then when they got older and wanted to move near to their dd, they were trapped because they would have had very little equity left to buy another smaller home. They are now truly suffering in a house that is far too big for them and there is no possibility of them moving. Nothing wtong with downsizing instead

Check on Martin Lewis website . He did a programme about it and only recommends it if you don’t have relatives to leave your inheritance to as it seems reasonable but the amount owed doubles very quickly and they triples.

Worth some careful research