A form of property ownership that usually gives ownership of the building and land indefinitely, subject to legal rights and obligations. It does not automatically make a home acceptable to every lender.
A form of property ownership that usually gives ownership of the building and land indefinitely, subject to legal rights and obligations. It does not automatically make a home acceptable to every lender.
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.
This is a plain-language explanation of how the term is commonly used in the UK. It carries no source key because it makes no regulatory, product or property claim that needs one. It does not override a provider’s offer, your mortgage conditions, a solicitor’s advice or a regulator’s rules.
Checked 7 September 2026. The whole vocabulary sits on one page, so you can look up two words in the same sentence without going anywhere: see this entry in the full glossary.
Equity release and a flying freehold
Find out which of three things you have, then what is assessed about it.
Read the guide called Equity release and a flying freehold →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.
These guides use the term. Each line is quoted from the page it links to.
“No report makes a flying freehold into an ordinary freehold, no certificate turns a leasehold flat into a house, and nothing changes the decade a timber frame was built in.”
If a lender will not accept your property →“A flying freehold, and the three things it gets confused with.”
Equity release and a flying freehold →““No, we do not accept freehold flats or maisonettes.”
Equity release with a short lease: rule and myth →Each of these either appears in the definition above, or names this term in its own.
Short answers to the things that come up most. None of it is advice, and every figure on this page carries its source.
A form of property ownership that usually gives ownership of the building and land indefinitely, subject to legal rights and obligations. It does not automatically make a home acceptable to every lender.
It is a plain-language explanation of how the term is commonly used in the UK. It carries no source key because it makes no regulatory, product or property claim that would need one, and it does not override a provider's offer, the conditions of a plan you hold, or advice from your solicitor.
On the guide "Equity release and a flying freehold", which helps you find out which of three things you have, then what is assessed about it. A glossary entry explains a word. The guide works through what it actually means for a decision, with its sources and the date each was checked.
No. There is nothing on this page to fill in and nothing is collected by reading it. Looking up what a word means is not a decision, and we are not able to advise you about your own circumstances in any case.
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.
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.
Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Vimeo. Say no and none of them loads. What each one stores, and what Microsoft use theirs for.