If you are talking about a lifetime mortgage where you do not make regular repayments then I would strongly advise against it at your age if you are talking about having to borrow a large sum of money, which it sounds like you might be to buy out a 50% share.
At say age 68 you can typically borrow 35% of the value of your home so you probably wouldn’t be able to fund a 50% buy out with equity release anyway.
The compound interest would be punitive. Current rates are 6.50% to 7.20%. Anything over 6% is considered toxic. Rates are usually fixed for life but some lenders may let you renegotiate if rates come down substantially.
Let’s say you are 68. If you borrowed say 100,000 now at 7%, by the time you are 78 you would owe over £210,000. By the time you are 88 you would owe £415,000. At 98 £815,000.
The debt is capped at the value of your home but you could easily find yourself losing all the equity and in a position where you cannot move house if you need to as there’s nothing left to buy another place. Lenders will sometimes transfer a debt but you see the problem if you wanted to downsize in older age.
Equity release is predicated on the notion that the increase value of your home will outstrip the debt. That’s unlikely to happen unless values rocket beyond what’s being charged as compound interest.
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