Equity Release Schemes For The Over 80’s

For those over the age of 55 years, equity release schemes provide a chance to unlock the financial value stored up in one’s home.

With over 310 different plans available, there are options with competitive interest rates and loan-to-value ratios, as well as long-term safeguards that help ensure your plan is suitable for your current and future needs.

It is easy to overlook the potential benefits these schemes can offer against a backdrop of economic disruption, but thousands of individuals take advantage of them every year.

If you meet the criteria and think this type of plan could offer more stability and security to you or your loved ones, then now may be the ideal time to explore what’s out there.

Example Of Equity Release For People In The UK:

Property Valuation: £187,000
Release Amount: £121,600
Loan To Value: 65%
Rate: 4.81% MER
Is There A Redemption Penalty: No
Is This Product Portable: Yes It Is

Please Enter Your Requirements Below:

Equity Release

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Property Value*The value of your home must exceed £70,000 to qualify
Please enter a number from 70000 to 25000000.
How much would you like to release?*Please enter a value between £10,000 and £25,000,000
Please enter a number from 10000 to 25000000.

Equity Release For The Over 80’s are there benefits?

Due to the persons age, and the over 80 pension entitlement, the question of how does releasing equity work is very different for people that are 80 years old. Due to demographics, the risks to a lender are very quantifiable, so loans for over 80s are seen as very low risk.

Do any of the following questions apply yo you?

Do you have a mortgage you would like to pay off soon?
Do you require money for repairs or home improvements? Like a new extension or bathroom.
Would you like to help a family member secure their own property?
Would you like to pay off all your credit cards and loans and have zero monthly payments?
Would you like a better lifestyle, change your car or have a well-deserved holiday?
Easily Release Equity From Your Home As A Cash Sum Or Regular Payments

Equity Release For People Over 80 Explained

There are a wide variety of products suited to equity release for over 80 and various options that allow you to repay some of the interest, or in some cases, all of it, depending on the plan you select.

Selecting a plan that’s suitable for you is difficult and can’t be done alone. You aren’t expected to either and are not allowed to.

Equity release products are highly regulated. Lenders need to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. There’s also the Equity Release Council, which is the industry watchdog.

The Equity Release Council upholds fairness, transparency, and ethical practices, insisting their members give homeowners a No Negative Guarantee. This ensures that no matter how long your lifetime mortgage is in place, your family will never owe more than your home is sold for. It’s a protection that ensures your family doesn’t inherit debt.

What it doesn’t do, though, is guarantee there will be any inheritance left for your family. If you use equity release and leave some of your home’s value to your family as inheritance, the number of suitable plans will reduce.

This is because there are fewer plan providers without upper age limits, which lets you ring-fence a portion of your property’s value to leave to your loved ones as a guaranteed inheritance. Some specialist providers do, though.

Assessing Your Suitability For These Products Including Loans for over 80s

Equity release for over 80s requires a specialist approach because in almost all cases, pension credits are involved. When they are, even if you have an indefinite assessed income period, releasing a large amount of your property value as cash increases your savings, sometimes substantially. These changes can supersede the indefinite period, requiring the change in circumstances to be reported to the Pension Service.

Click To Release Tax-Free Cash From Your Home

There are, however, several exemptions in place for people using equity release at 80 and over that enable money to be released from your property through a lifetime mortgage without affecting your benefit entitlement. It depends on how you spend your money.

Some exemptions include home repairs that are necessary for your well-being. This could involve fitting a stairlift, having a downstairs bathroom put in, adapting a bathroom into a wet room for easier accessibility, or replacing your vehicle with another that’s wheelchair accessible. Or perhaps to consolidate loans so you can manage monthly outgoings better.

What you cannot do is release equity from your home and give it away as an advance on inheritance to your loved ones. This can be classed as deliberate deprivation of assets.

When this is the case, your entitlement to benefits such as council tax reduction, pension credits, and care packages from local authorities to help with home care in your senior years can be cancelled. Deliberate deprivation of assets is also benefit fraud, so it definitely needs to be care taken around how your money is gifted.

Types of Equity Release for Over 80s

The most common type of equity release for 80s are plans with interest roll-up. With these, you pay no monthly payments, but instead, interest is applied to the cash advance (or multiple if used as income or regular top-ups) based on the amount of capital you release from the equity you own in your home.

A property valuation is carried out by the plan provider with the cost usually included in the arrangement fee. It doesn’t matter what you paid for your home. The value of your home is based on current market conditions. This is the amount an equity release lender will use to determine how much you can borrow.

The older you are, the more equity you can release. Most plans are accessible from the age of 55, with some having a minimum age requirement of 60. The LTV (loan to value) used is lower the younger you are.

Therefore, for homeowners who have recently become eligible for an equity release plan, they may only be able to release 20% to 30% of their home’s value as either capital or as a pre-approved limit if they were to use a drawdown facility to keep some equity available to borrow later in life.

By the age of 80, equity release LTV’s are higher, often in the region of 50% and upwards of your home’s valuation. For example, if your home is deemed worth £200,000, you’d be able to borrow £100,000 or over in most cases.

Calculating The Interest On Lifetime Mortgages

Working out the total cost of a lifetime mortgage is tricky, and it’s the reason why an equity release calculator online won’t work as a traditional home loan calculator would. That’s because on equity release plans, the interest is applied to the capital released as compound interest and that’s continual, not annually.

Usually, on savings accounts, compound interest is added annually. What that means is that if you have £10,000 with a 4% annual compound interest, you will get £400 interest the first year, then the second year, interest on the £400 too, so you’d get an extra £16 the following year if you left it untouched. Your interest on lifetime mortgages for over 55 would continue to pay more back to you with compounding interest when it’s used with savings.

With equity release, it’s not annual compound interest. It’s continual, so the interest is charged on interest monthly. This is why there are safeguards in place to ensure a lifetime mortgage is the best solution for your financial needs in retirement.

Interest-Only Lifetime Mortgages – Equity Release Without Compound Interest

Another type of equity release product that’s somewhat of a newer plan is the interest-only lifetime mortgage. With this, the effect of compounding interest is mitigated as you make the monthly interest payments each month, keeping the capital owed the same.

Unlike the majority of equity release plans, interest-only plans have no upper age limit, so if you’re planning to use equity release at aged 80+; it’s worth considering if you could afford to make the monthly interest repayments.

On joint plans, these can be affordable, but if you’re relying on just a single pension, it’s worthwhile ensuring you can afford the monthly repayments before applying. The interest rates on these plans are generally lower; however, they can be difficult to be approved for as lenders need to be sure that requiring a monthly interest payment is not going to leave you without enough money to meet your care needs or living costs.

Click To Release Tax-Free Cash From Your Home

The advantages of these plans, besides having no upper age limit are the lower interest rates, the ability to lock the interest rate in for life, preventing it from increasing with inflation while retaining the ability to switch to interest roll-up if a time comes when you struggle to make the monthly repayments.

For those looking to use equity release for over 80s and want a way to protect an inheritance for loved ones, interest-only plans are suitable for that and flexible enough to switch to interest roll-up. However, once the plan changes from interest-only to interest roll-up, the rate of interest can be higher as the interest lock-in only applies to the plan you’re approved for. If you need to change, the terms of the lifetime mortgage will change too.

Upper Age Limits of Equity Release Plans and Mortgages for over 80s

The vast majority of lenders prefer to lend to older applicants. However, for those applying for equity release over 85, fewer lenders are available due to the upper age limits. Several providers have limited the age of applicants to 85 years old, with some capping the age at application at 90 years old.

Cautions with Home Reversion Plans for Over 80s

Home reversion plans are a type of equity release scheme that isn’t as popular as lifetime mortgages, but they are still an option.

With a home reversion plan, you can sell some or all of your home equity to a reversion company. With these plans, you retain the right to live in your home for the rest of your life, but once you pass, the reversion company requires the home to be sold, at which point they get the equity share agreed at the time the plan was started. If you sell 100% equity to a reversion company, nothing will be left for inheritance.

However, there is the option to use an equity split, such as taking 50% equity as a cash lump sum or as a monthly income and keeping 50% ownership. This can let you build in a 50% guaranteed equity to leave to your loved ones.

But the older you are, the riskier these plans are because they usually don’t pay out when death is shortly after the plan starts. A capital protection element can be included, providing a partial rebate, but only if that option is selected at the outset.

Home reversion plans are generally bad for those over 80 looking into equity release. It essentially means selling the ownership of your property to a reversion company for significantly less than its market value, as they’ll only buy at a set percentage of your home’s market value.

That could be as low as 40% below market value, and that’s with no inheritance guarantee. The only upside is you don’t pay interest, but you do pay by selling your home for far less than it’s worth.

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