Retired and downsizing. Mortgage to cover period between purchase and sale?

randompenitent

Just bouncing some ideas around.

My wife and I (62, 57) are retired and mortgage free.  Our current property has been on the market for a few months - selling is proving to be slow but I'm confident will eventually happen.

We've found somewhere we want to buy but it is a competitive situation. To secure the property we need to move quickly and will need to borrow around 50% of the price which we would pay off from the proceeds of selling our current home.

We have little "income" as such but substantial investment assets (personal pensions, ISAs). We don't want to cash these in (or at least, only minimally) because of the tax implications of doing so.

Could we potentially get a mortgage to cover this? Ideally one secured against our current home (it's worth more, so LTV would be lower)?  If so, are there particular lenders we should look at?  Bridging loans look designed to cover situations like this but they seem to be insanely expensive.

Thanks!

amnblog

Bridging loans are expensive. You need to decide if securing this property is worth the cost.

A standard mortgage is not the answer.

Hoenir

randompenitent said:

 Bridging loans look designed to cover situations like this but they seem to be insanely expensive.

Impossible to have your cake and eat it so to speak. If it's the property of your dreams then sacrificing some efficiency tax  i.e. the ISA's. Might be the solution. ISA's after all can be rebuilt. 

kingstreet

Mortgage lenders don't like short-term borrowing. You could look for an ERC-free tracker product which would allow you to repay the mortgage when the property sells, but you will still need to meet affordability.

randompenitent

No surprises, I guess. Thanks for the input.