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Equity release rates

What equity release actually costs this week

Every rate on this page carries the lender it came from, the circumstances it is quoted against, and the date we last opened that lender’s own published rate sheet. Where we cannot verify a figure we leave it in brackets rather than leave last week’s in place.

Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.

A rate is not an offer

An advertised rate is a lender’s lowest rate on its cheapest product, quoted against one fixed set of circumstances. It is the floor of the market. Your age, your property, how much you want relative to what the house is worth, and whether you want to draw the money in stages will all move it, usually upwards.

See how much you could release →
Lowest rate we can verify
[6.20%] MER
[6.38%] AER, from Pure Retirement. Fixed for the life of the plan.
Quoted against

Single life, healthy male, aged 70, living in England, £500,000 property value, £100,000 loan, no monthly payments.

Change any one of those and the rate changes.

The amount available will depend on your age, property value and individual needs.

Talk it through with an adviser Source: [lender rate sheets]. Checked 10 September 2026. Brackets mean we have not yet confirmed this figure against the lender’s own published sheet.
Checked 10 September 2026
[6.20%]lowest lump sum rate, fixed for life[lender rate sheets] [6.44%]lowest drawdown rate[lender rate sheets] 43.5%most you could release at 70LTV schedule, July 2026 54%most you could release at 80 or overLTV schedule, July 2026 55Legal & General's youngest applicantL&G lending criteria, 6 September 2026 £0to pay each month unless you choose tosubject to lender terms [6 to 8 weeks]typical time from application to money £70,000Legal & General's minimum for a houseL&G lending criteria, 6 September 2026

How to read an equity release rate

Three things decide whether a rate you have been shown means anything: which rate it is, what circumstances it was quoted against, and when somebody last checked it. A figure missing any of the three is not information.

MER and AER

The same loan, two numbers

MER is the monthly equivalent rate, AER the annual equivalent. Interest is added monthly and then earns interest itself, so the annual figure is always higher. Lenders usually advertise the MER. Compare one against the other and a plan looks cheaper than it is.

The scenario

A rate without one is meaningless

Every headline rate is quoted against a fixed set of circumstances. Ours is printed beside it at the top of this page. A different age, a different property value or a bigger loan relative to that value is a different rate.

The date

Not the date on the page

A page updated this month can carry a figure from two years ago. Look for a date attached to the number itself, not a heading at the top. Ours sits under every figure on this page.

Worth knowing

Equity release requires repaying any existing mortgage. Money released, plus accrued interest, would need to be repaid upon death or moving into long-term care.

What named lenders publish

Listed alphabetically, not by rate. This is not a best-buy table and there is no cheapest plan: the right lender depends on your age, your property and how you want to take the money, and only an adviser can work that out with you.

Lowest advertised rate on each lender’s cheapest lifetime mortgage, quoted against single life, healthy male, aged 70, living in England, £500,000 property value, £100,000 loan, no monthly payments. Checked 10 September 2026. A figure in brackets has not yet been confirmed against that lender’s own published rate sheet.
Lender MER AER
Aviva [6.41%] [6.60%]
more2life [6.42%] [6.61%]
Pure Retirement [6.20%] [6.38%]

Plans from the whole of the market will be considered, the features mentioned and the amounts raised, are subject to the lender's criteria, terms and conditions. These may take into account the age, health and lifestyle factors in order to provide you with an enhanced amount, if needed.

Why the rate is what it is

Lifetime mortgages are priced against long-dated government borrowing rather than the Bank of England base rate. When the government pays more to borrow for fifteen years, so do you. That is why equity release rates barely moved when the base rate did, and why they have stayed near 6% while everyone waited for them not to.

Lowest rate we could verify 15-year gilt yield
4.5% 5% 5.5% 6% 6.5% 7% Dec 2025 Apr 2026 May 2026 Jul 2026 Aug 2026 Sep 2026
Dec 2025 Lowest rate 6.3%, gilt 4.94% Source: Advise Wise weekly update, w/c 19 December 2025
Apr 2026 Lowest rate not verified, gilt 5.09% Source: Trading Economics, 8 April 2026
May 2026 Lowest rate 6.63%, gilt 5.6% Source: Sharing Pensions, 15 May 2026
Jul 2026 Lowest rate not verified, gilt 5.46% Source: Sharing Pensions, July 2026
Aug 2026 Lowest rate not verified, gilt 5.37% Source: Sharing Pensions, 13 August 2026
Sep 2026 Lowest rate 6.2%, gilt not recorded Source: [lender rate sheets], 5 September 2026
The 15-year gilt yield against the lowest lifetime mortgage rate we could verify. Each dot is a reading and carries its own source below; the line between two dots is not a measurement, and the rate was not recorded every month. The horizontal axis is time, so a four-month gap is drawn four times as wide as a one-month gap. No single series covers the whole period, which is why the sources differ.
What we cannot verify

This series is incomplete and drawn from more than one source, so treat the shape as indicative and the individual points as sourced. We are publishing it in that state rather than filling the gaps with estimates.

Worth knowing if you are checking our work: the “15-year gilt yield” widely quoted in this industry is not a Debt Management Office benchmark. The DMO publishes 5, 10, 30 and 50 year averages and classes everything over fifteen years as long. The 15-year figure comes from commercial providers, so it should always be cited to the provider that produced it.

The market, and one number to be careful with

The Equity Release Council publishes market figures every quarter. These come from its Q2 2026 release, published 3 August 2026.

£597mlent in the quarter, up 4% on Q1
13,489customers, up 4% on Q1
£113,779average new lump sum, down 6% on Q1
£63,642average initial drawdown, up 2% on Q1

Source: Equity Release Council, Q2 2026 market report, published 3 August 2026. Checked 10 September 2026.

A number to be careful with

You will see 7.24% quoted as “the average equity release rate” across a great many websites, usually with this year’s date at the top of the page.

It is the Equity Release Council’s average APR for Q2 2025, published 24 July 2025. The Council has published no rate since. Its Q2 2026 release, the most recent, contains none. So a page printing it today is showing you a figure more than a year old, next to a date that suggests otherwise.

It is also an APR, which is not the same measure as the rate a lender advertises. An APR has the fees folded into it. So it cannot be subtracted from a headline rate to show what the market charges, and anywhere you see that done, including on this page before 10 September 2026, the sum is wrong.

We publish it with its real date rather than not at all, because the direction is genuinely useful. The Council put the same measure at 6.64% in Q2 2024, a year earlier, and attributed the rise to gilt yields. That is the comparison worth making, because it is one measure against itself.

Questions about equity release rates

What people ask once they have seen a rate and want to know what it means. None of this is advice.

Why is the rate I am offered higher than the one advertised?

An advertised rate is a lender's lowest rate on its cheapest product, quoted against one fixed set of circumstances. Your age, the value of your home, how much you want to borrow relative to that value, the property itself and whether you want a drawdown facility all move it. The lowest advertised rate is the floor of the market, not a quote.

What is the difference between MER and AER?

MER is the monthly equivalent rate and AER is the annual equivalent rate. They describe the same loan. Because interest is added monthly and then earns interest itself, the annual figure is always the higher of the two. Lenders usually advertise the MER. Compare like with like, or a plan will look cheaper than it is.

Are equity release rates fixed for life?

On a lifetime mortgage the rate is normally fixed for the life of the plan, and Equity Release Council standards require that a rate is either fixed or, if variable, capped. Fixed means it will not rise, and it also means it will not fall if the market improves. Check the offer document, because this is a product feature rather than a guarantee that applies everywhere.

Why are equity release rates so much higher than an ordinary mortgage?

Lenders price lifetime mortgages against long-dated government borrowing rather than the Bank of England base rate, and they are lending for an unknown length of time with nothing repaid until the end. They also carry the no-negative-equity guarantee, which is a real cost. That is why the two rates move independently of each other.

Should I wait for rates to come down?

Nobody can tell you that, and we are not advisers. What we can tell you is what the rate is today, what it was, and what it is priced against. Waiting also means being a year older, which raises the maximum you could release. An adviser has to weigh both against your circumstances.

How often do you check these figures?

Weekly. Every rate on this page carries the date we last opened the lender's own published rate sheet. Where we cannot verify a figure in a given week we leave it in brackets rather than leave last week's in place and hope.

Worth knowing

Equity release may involve a lifetime mortgage, secured against your property, or a home reversion plan. It will reduce the value of your estate and impact funding long-term care.

Talk it through with an adviser

Takes about two minutesFree, no obligation, and nothing committed

One qualified equity release adviser. They will go through your figures and tell you if there is a better answer. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

Advice is required to proceed with equity release and there may be other options which better suit your circumstances. Only if your case completes would an advice fee be payable, and the adviser will tell you what theirs is before you commit to anything. Other lender and solicitor fees may apply.

We pass your details to one adviser and nobody else.