Porting a Mortgage: Can I take my mortgage with me when I move home?
If you’re planning on moving home, and have a mortgage on your existing property, you might be wondering whether you can take your current mortgage with you.Lots of mortgages are portable, which means you can move them across to a different property, but it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons first.
What does “porting your mortgage” mean?
Porting a mortgage describes the process of taking your current mortgage rate with you to a new property. Usual circumstances for porting your mortgage would be if you’re moving to a new home and borrowing more before the term of your current deal has finished.
What are the benefits of porting my mortgage to a new property?
If you’re on a really great deal, or if you’ll be hit with steep Early Repayment Charges for leaving your current mortgage, it can make good financial sense to stick with the same deal.Some lenders charge thousands of pounds if you redeem a mortgage early, so check how much you might have to pay if you were to switch to a different deal rather than transfer.
If you’re not sure whether transferring your current mortgage to a new property is the right decision, get expert help from one of our advisers. They’ll be able to work out whether it’s more cost-effective to take your deal to your new home, or to switch away from your existing mortgage to a different deal altogether.
Porting a mortgage explained
Transferring your mortgage across to another property isn’t as simple as just changing the address on your mortgage.You effectively have to re-apply for your mortgage, even if you’re not changing the term or the amount you’re borrowing. That means you’ll need to supply proof of identity as well as evidence of your income and outgoings – in fact all the information you had to provide when you first applied for your mortgage .
The lender will need to carry out a valuation of the property you’re purchasing too, to confirm that it provides adequate security for them to lend against.
Once they’ve assessed your application, they’ll tell you if you’re able to move your mortgage or not.
What if I want to port my mortgage and borrow more?
If you’re moving to a property which requires a bigger mortgage, you may have to borrow any extra money you need at a different rate. You’ll have to check with your mortgage provider that they’ll agree to lend you the additional money you need.If you do need to borrow additional funds, try to make sure that the term of your top-up deal ends at around the same time as your current mortgage, so that at that point you can remortgage the whole amount onto the same deal.
