Bath Building Society has launched a new range of retirement mortgages, in a bid to help older borrowers across the area release equity or move home.
The mortgage will be repaid from the sale of the home when the customer, or for joint mortgages, each customer, dies or moves into sheltered accommodation or residential care, or to live with a family member in another property.
During the term of the mortgage the borrower is responsible for meeting the monthly payments which will be on an interest only basis.
Dick Jenkins, Chief Executive of the Society said: “Bath Building Society has long been a champion of older borrowers, but this product further demonstrates that we are open for business to later life borrowing.
“There is a definite and increasing need for older people to have the flexibility to borrow to meet their needs, in much the same way that younger people do.
“We know that many older borrowers want to preserve the equity in their homes as an inheritance for their children and where they can meet the cost of borrowing from their pensions and incomes, why should they not have the opportunity to do so?
“As we all are living longer and are more active in our later years we need to reflect that in the mortgages we offer.
“The traditional mortgage model in which you have to pay off your mortgage at the point you retire and are excluded from the market thereafter seems now to belong to a bygone age.
“And people no longer conform to a stereotype of old age, if indeed they ever did; retired people have dreams too and we want to help finance them.”
The minimum age for this product is 65, and you must have a source of income; typically from a pension so that interest payments are affordable for the term of the mortgage which may be up to your full lifetime.
Bath Building Society can lend a minimum of £50,000 and up to a maximum of £200,000. The amount you can borrow will depend upon your needs and your ability to repay the interest each month.
They can lend up to 25% of your property’s value, which must be in the Bath, Bristol, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire, Somerset or Wiltshire area.
