Selling house but new mortgage will start a month from end of sale with higher exit fees

Croissant

Hi All,

We have just got a buyer for our rental property. The mortgage runs out on the 31st Dec. The sale will probably take until February 2023. We had already arranged a mortgage from 1st Jan to fix on lower rates before we decided to sell but it does mean an early exit fee of £5,000. Are there any other ways to avoid this or diff types of mortgages to tied us over for 2 months until the sale?  Also as this is a second property we will pay on the profit from the sale. Is there any way to reduce the amount to pay as tax and what would the % be please. Thank you for your time