Every page on this site carries the required warnings. This is where they are gathered with the figures that make them concrete, so somebody can read the complete picture at once and decide against it if that is the right answer.
Every page on this site carries the required warnings. This is the page where they are gathered with the arithmetic behind them, so you can read the whole picture in one sitting.
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 are not in order of importance, because the order depends on you. Somebody with no family and a small estate reads that second one very differently from somebody with three children and a house they meant to pass on.
Interest is charged on interest. £50,000 at an illustrative 6.2% is £91,246 after ten years and £166,518 after twenty. Nothing is going wrong when that happens: it is the product working as designed.
See the full table →The no-negative-equity guarantee means no debt passes to your family. It does not protect what is left over. £100,000 borrowed against a £350,000 house leaves £16,965 after twenty years.
See what is left →Money released and held is capital. On the published GOV.UK rule, £50,000 in the bank is treated as £80 a week of income you never receive. Your State Pension is not affected, but Pension Credit and Council Tax Support can be.
See the rule worked out →Early repayment charges vary by product and some are linked to gilt yields, which means the charge itself moves. Council members waive it on a permanent move into care, with a medical certificate. Outside that, ask what yours would be.
How the charges work →The right to move house is subject to the lender's criteria at the time you move. If your circumstances change, the property you want to move to has to meet them, and criteria change.
What gets assessed, feature by feature →There may be options that are not equity release at all: a retirement interest-only mortgage, moving, savings, help from family, or a benefit you are not claiming. An adviser has to consider those with you.
The alternatives →These four come up in almost every conversation, and none of them is true as stated. Each correction carries its own limit, because the true version is usually narrower than the reassurance people are hoping for.
“The lender takes your house.”
With a lifetime mortgage you keep owning your home. It is a loan secured on it, repaid when the last owner dies or moves into long-term care.
“Your family could owe more than the house is worth.”
Plans meeting Equity Release Council standards carry a no negative equity guarantee, so no debt passes to your family. It does not protect what is left over: the debt can still use up most or all of the value of the home.
“The rate can go up later.”
On Council-standard plans the rate is fixed for life, or capped if it is variable. Money you draw later from a reserve is priced at the rate of the day you draw it, which will not be the rate you see today.
“You can never pay any of it back.”
Council-standard plans let you make repayments without an early repayment charge, and paying the interest each year stops the debt growing at all. What the limit is depends on the plan.
Equity Release Council product standards, accessed 6 September 2026.
None of this means the product is wrong. People clear mortgages they can no longer service, pay for care at home, adapt a house so they can stay in it another twenty years. Those are good reasons and this page is not an argument against them. It is the other half of the picture, gathered in one place, because you should be able to read both halves before deciding.
See what else there is, including doing nothing →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.
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.
The first one is for you, on your own, before anybody else is involved.
Which of these six actually applies to me?
Most people are exposed to two or three, not all six. Working out which is the useful hour.
Can I see the illustration with my own figures on it?
An adviser must give you one. It contains the debt at future dates and it is the document to take home and sleep on.
What would happen if I changed my mind in five years?
The early repayment charge question, asked in the form that matters.
What alternatives did you consider, and why did you rule them out?
An adviser has to consider them. Asking for the reasoning is entirely reasonable and tells you a lot.
Short answers to the things that come up most. None of it is advice, and every figure on this page carries its source.
The debt grows, and it grows faster later, because interest is charged on interest. £50,000 at an illustrative 6.2% is £91,246 after ten years and £166,518 after twenty. Nothing is going wrong when that happens: it is the product working as designed.
No, where the plan carries a no-negative-equity guarantee. What that does not protect is what is left over. £100,000 borrowed against a £350,000 house leaves £16,965 after twenty years.
It can. Money released and held is capital. On the published GOV.UK rule, £50,000 in the bank is treated as £80 a week of income you never receive. Your State Pension is not affected, but means-tested benefits can be.
It can be. Early repayment charges vary by product and some are linked to gilt yields, which means the charge itself moves. Council members waive it on a permanent move into care, with a medical certificate.
No, because the order depends on you. Somebody with no family and a small estate reads the inheritance risk very differently from somebody with three children and a house worth twice what they need.
No. People clear mortgages they can no longer service, pay for care at home, and adapt a house so they can stay in it another twenty years. Those are good reasons. The point of this page is that the costs are known before the decision, not after it.
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.