Remortgage or borrow more on existing mortgage (staircasing to 100%)?

dax42

Hi all,
I'm currently in a shared ownership property, thinking of staircasing to 100%. My current mortgage has just gone on the standard variable rate (so no early repayment charges) and I could even pay it off completely if that would help. To get the mortgage to buy the rest of my property, I see two options: I either stay with my current lender, Nationwide, and just borrow more, or remortgage to a different lender. In either case I would still stay under 60% LTV and I know it's affordable for me, so rates and deals should be good.

I'm just wondering what the pros and cons of the two options are. Of course I know that if I stay with my current lender I don't have access to all the best deals, but to be honest the difference isn't huge, so I'm wondering whether there's anything else I'm not considering.

One thing I saw is that if I just borrow more on my existing mortgage, I cannot extend my mortgage term. Presumably if I remortgage with a different lender I can change the mortgage term back to a longer term and thus reduce my monthly payments a bit? I realise this means I will pay more in the long run but it might be helpful for me right now.

Do you think by just adding more to my current mortgage the process would go smoother and/or faster?

Thanks!

getmore4less

You should be able to look at a full new deal with nationwide  rather that just the additional borrowing option. 
The rates vary a bit depending how it is structured but all are very competitive.

K_S

@dax42 If you want to stay with NW, you can do a further advance and use it to staircase. It will still involve most of what goes with a full application - income verification, affordability assessment, etc so it may be worth considering your remortgage options as well. Nationwide rates will still be very competitive so you're unlikely to lose out by much by not changing lenders.