Advice please

DaveS33

Hi

A bit complicated but bear with me!

Looking at retiring, probably early 2012. We have about £210k in savings and a house (paid for) worth about £130k.

We'd like to buy a retirement home for around £240k, which means rasing £30k of strictly temporary finance, repaid when we sell the old house.

What is my best option for this loan?

Do I remortgage the existing house and swallow any early settlement fees on repayment?

Arrange a bridging loan?

How likely am I to get a mortgage if I'm honest about retirement plans and early repayment?

Thanks

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

You could take a mortgage on either. Assuming you have a pension income post 2012, lenders will still take this into account, so long as it covers the lendnig you suggest. They may have a shorter loan duration and some cap at 70 at loan maturity.

If it's truly short term, it may be worth looking at a standard variable rate to incur no penalties.

You may find slightly better rates on a purchase than a remortgage but for a lend of £30k and at today's interest rates it is not a large monthly difference

DaveS33

Ah - there's the rub. I don't plan to start taking any pension on retirement because the reduction for doing so is pretty savage. The balance of the money from selling the old house will keep us going until pensions kick in.
I plan on staying at work until the new house is sorted and the old has a buyer lined up.
I suppose I could just take a mortgage and keep shtum about retirement plans, but I'm basically an honest guy.
The whole idea is to be able to go househunting without having to put the old house on the market first. Not being in a chain would give me some leverage on the purchase price and more control over timescales.