First Remortgage Advice

Anonmouse

My OH and I purchased our first home in January of this year with a 10% deposit, my aim is to get to 20% equity asap so that I can remortgage to an 80% LTV deal with a better interest rate. The house was bought for £122,000 on a HSBC Lifetime Tracker mortgage - 3.69% above base, no tie-ins or limits on overpayments.

Current Mortgage payment is £590 and I am currently overpaying £100 a month every month and cannot really afford for the mortgage to go above £750 per month when the base rate starts to rise.

Current balance is down to £106,700k - so another £9,100 to go to hit 20% I have access to approx £1500 that could be put into the mortgage so could hit that in 24 months without any additional funding at current rate.

So here come the questions:

Is there any possibility of getting a higher valuation on the property whilst remortgaging?, I know it was originally listed for sale at £133,000 and feel I got a good price at the right time and have spent a little time and money decorating and improving - although nothing major yet that would affect the value much.

Ideally I would want to remortgage to the same product through HSBC, are they likely to be more obstructive than other lenders? as effectively I am just trying to reduce what I pay them each month. Are there any comparable rates I have missed at 80% LTV? (Lifetime Tracker at Base +2.5%, no tie-ins or overpayment limits)

Would it be worth considering slow stoozing £2-3000 to get the required % quicker or would this hinder my chances of getting approved? (currently have 1 ccard that is cleared each month - no debts apart from mortgage/student loan)

I would plan to move from a 20 to 30 year term to make the minimum payment as low as possible as well as saving £100 a month in interest - this would allow me to clear the credit cards before 0% expires then continue payments at £700 giving a large buffer for interest rate movements.

Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated!

kingstreet

You aren't remortgaging, you want to transfer to another product with the same lender. In these circumstances, lenders normally use a desktop valuation model like Hometrack to establish the change in value.

Whether this might suggest your property is worth more, I have no idea. The possibility it may have been worth more at purchase is a red herring. They will work on a percentage change to the agreed purchase price when you bought it, not on the bargain value you think you might have achieved.

I suggest you simply continue what you're doing for the time being. It may be worth a call to your lender to find out exactly what its requirements might be for a product transfer in your circumstances.