How to release equity from your home

Releasing equity means turning part of the value you own in your home into cash. Your equity is the value of the home minus any mortgage or loan secured on it, so a home with no mortgage is all equity. You can release it by borrowing against the home, selling part of it, or moving somewhere cheaper.

The right method depends mainly on your age, your income and whether you want to stay in the home. Some methods need monthly payments and an income check, and others do not.

Each method is secured on your home, apart from downsizing, so the home may be at risk if the terms are not kept.

The main ways to release equity are equity release for homeowners aged 55 or over, remortgaging to a larger loan, a further advance from your current lender, a second charge loan alongside your mortgage, and downsizing. They differ in cost, in whether you make monthly payments and in what is left in the home afterwards.

Equity release is repaid from the sale of the home, usually when the last borrower dies or moves into care. The other borrowing options are repaid monthly over a set term, like any mortgage.

Downsizing releases the difference between the sale price of your home and the cost of the next one, less moving costs. It needs no new loan, but it does mean moving.

For homeowners aged 55 or over, equity release lets you take money from your home without moving and usually without monthly payments. A lifetime mortgage is a loan where interest rolls up, and a home reversion plan is the sale of part of the home. Both are repaid or settled when the home is sold.

No income check is needed on most lifetime mortgages, which makes them an option for people whose pension would not support a standard mortgage. The trade-off is cost, because rolled-up interest grows over time.

Advice is required before equity release goes ahead (FCA Handbook, MCOB 8, accessed 20 Oct 2026). The wider picture, including the protections and the steps, is covered in the guide to how equity release works.

Remortgaging to release equity means taking a new, larger mortgage and keeping the difference, while a further advance is extra borrowing from your current lender. Both need an income and affordability check and are repaid monthly over a set term, so they suit people with steady income who can afford the higher payments.

A second charge loan sits alongside your existing mortgage and can be useful if your current deal has a high early repayment charge. It also needs an affordability check and is usually more expensive than a remortgage.

These options generally cost less than equity release over time, because the debt is repaid monthly rather than growing, but the monthly payments must be affordable for the whole term.

If you are under 55, equity release is not normally available, so the options are remortgaging, a further advance, a second charge loan or selling. Each needs an affordability check based on your income, and the term may run into retirement, which lenders look at closely when deciding how much to lend and for how long.

Some lenders offer later-life mortgages that run past retirement age for people approaching 55, assessed on pension income. These are standard mortgages rather than equity release.

The mortgage options for people in their fifties and beyond are explained in the later-life mortgages guide.

The options compare on four points: monthly payments, total cost, what is left in the home and whether you have to move. Remortgages and further advances cost least but need monthly payments, equity release needs no payments but grows over time, and downsizing needs no borrowing but means moving and paying moving costs.

For people aged 55 or over, a retirement interest-only mortgage sits between a standard mortgage and equity release, with monthly interest payments and no growth in the debt.

Advisers who cover later-life lending can compare equity release with the other options for your own circumstances.