If your circumstances are less straightforward, there are mortgage options designed to offer greater flexibility around borrowing, repayments and property purchases.
There are lots of lenders who offer greater flexibility to suit different scenarios:
Keeping your current home and buying another?
If you are in the situation where you are keeping your current home and buying another, there are different options available to facilitate this. While some mortgage products require you to use the proceeds of a property sale to use towards your new home, there are also products that allow you to keep your current property and buy another.
A scenario where you might need more flexibility is if you want to rent out your existing property and buy a new one to move into. A Let to Buy mortgage is designed to enable this, and you can use equity in your existing home to fund a deposit on your new one.
The rental income can also offset the mortgage repayments on the rental property. This mortgage option is ideal for people looking to start a property portfolio or boost their retirement funds with future rental income and/or capital when the property is later sold.
Some Let to Buy mortgages are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Want some breathing space before your first payment?
There are many costs involved in buying a new property, including stamp duty tax and conveyancing fees. If you need a bit of breathing space to help cover these costs, some lenders will agree to pause mortgage repayments for a short period of time through a delayed start mortgage.
Rather than extending the term of the mortgage to account for the delayed payments, they can be factored into your repayments to keep the term length the same.
Another situation where this type of flexibility is useful is if you are renting a property and your rental agreement does not end until after your purchase completes. Paying monthly rent and mortgage repayments can be unaffordable, so a delayed start mortgage helps navigate financial challenges.
Want more flexibility in how you repay?
To make mortgage repayments more affordable, an interest only mortgage could be a suitable option. You can significantly reduce your monthly payments by only paying the interest off on your mortgage loan. You then settle the capital when you sell the property or by taking out an alternative finance option at a later time.
If you want to have the flexibility to pay more of your mortgage off when you can afford to, some lenders allow you to do this without penalties. It is common for lenders to have an allowance of up to 10% overpayments per year, but you can find lenders that will allow you repay more without incurring charges.
