Help to Buy Mortgage in Brighton and Hove

Most Brighton and Hove Help to Buy redemptions are done through a remortgage, not a sale. The new mortgage replaces your current mortgage and adds the equity-loan repayment figure, then any product fee if you choose to add it. In Brighton and Hove, homedata.co.uk records an average house price of £404,000 for March 2026, with flats and maisonettes at £293,000. A 20% Help to Buy equity loan linked to a £293,000 flat would need £58,600 to redeem before Target HCA fees and legal costs.

A worked BN3 example makes the numbers easier to read. Say you bought a Hove flat for £250,000 with a £50,000 Help to Buy equity loan and a £187,500 mortgage. If that flat is now valued at £293,000, the equity-loan redemption is not the original £50,000. It is 20% of the current market value, so the Target HCA figure is £58,600 before the monthly management fee and completion adjustments.

The new mortgage in that example would be built around the current mortgage balance plus the £58,600 redemption amount. If the remaining mortgage is £170,000, the new lending need is £228,600 before any fee. Compared with a £293,000 current value, the post-redemption loan-to-value is around 78%. That matters in Brighton and Hove because many lenders price mortgages by LTV bands, and moving below a band can change the deals available.

Our brokers do the affordability check before the Red Book valuation cost is committed, using your income, existing credit commitments and the likely redemption figure. BN1 seafront flats, BN2 terraces and Portslade houses can produce very different LTV outcomes because the property type averages are far apart. Homedata.co.uk records detached homes at £843,000 and terraced homes at £470,000 in March 2026. A 20% equity loan on those current values would mean £168,600 for a detached home or £94,000 for a terrace, so the case cannot be guessed from the original purchase price alone.

• Current mortgage balance
• Estimated HTB redemption
• Current property value
• Post-redemption LTV
• Affordability at the larger mortgage
• Existing fixed-rate end date

Brighton and Hove has a wide gap between property types, which changes the redemption conversation. Homedata.co.uk records a March 2026 average of £404,000 overall, but flats and maisonettes sit at £293,000 while detached homes sit at £843,000. Help to Buy was often used on new-build flats, so many local redemptions are closer to the flat figure than the detached figure. Even so, a 20% share on £293,000 is £58,600, which is a meaningful addition to the mortgage.

Recent price movement also affects the decision. Homedata.co.uk records a 3.3% decrease in the Brighton and Hove average house price in the 12 months to March 2026, and a 6.0% decrease for flats. That may reduce the redemption figure compared with a higher valuation period, but it does not remove the interest cost after year 5. Owners who bought near a previous peak may find the current valuation helps with the Target HCA figure, while affordability still has to work at the larger mortgage size.

LTV is the second local issue. A BN1 flat valued at £293,000 with a £170,000 mortgage and a £58,600 redemption need would sit near 78% LTV after redemption. A terraced home at the £470,000 Brighton and Hove average with a £260,000 mortgage and a £94,000 redemption need would sit near 75% LTV. Those bands can affect product choice, so our brokers check the loan size against the current value before choosing lenders.

The fixed-rate end date can be just as important as the property value. Many Help to Buy owners in Brighton and Hove are on products arranged 2 years or 5 years ago, and an early repayment charge may apply if you remortgage before the deal ends. We calculate the cost of waiting against the HTB interest and management fee. A case in Portslade with 6 months left on a fix may need a different answer from a BN2 flat where the rate has already ended.

Transaction volume also matters because valuers use evidence from completed sales. Homedata.co.uk records 2,918 houses and flats sold in Brighton and Hove in 2023, down from 4,339 in the previous year. That does not stop a Red Book valuation, but it can affect how many close comparables the valuer can use. Flats near the seafront, terraces in BN2 and homes around Hove can each produce a different evidence set.

The post-redemption mortgage is not just your current balance with a small top-up. It is your existing mortgage, plus the full Help to Buy repayment, plus any fees you choose to add to the loan. In Brighton and Hove, using homedata.co.uk's £293,000 average flat value, a 20% equity loan gives a £58,600 repayment figure. If your existing mortgage is £170,000, the new borrowing need is £228,600 before product fees.

Affordability then decides whether that loan size is practical. Lenders look at income, commitments, dependants, credit history and the mortgage term. A couple in Hove with childcare costs can pass a different affordability test from a single applicant in Brighton with the same salary, because the lender's model looks at monthly outgoings. We test this before a full application so you are not paying valuation and solicitor costs without a route to offer.

LTV can improve compared with the original purchase even after adding the HTB redemption. That happens where the property value has risen since purchase, although Brighton and Hove's 12-month movement to March 2026 was negative at -3.3% according to homedata.co.uk. The key figure is the current Red Book valuation, not the old purchase price. Once the loan is redeemed, any future growth belongs to you rather than being shared with the scheme.

Product fees need a careful decision. Adding a £999 fee to the mortgage may be convenient, but it increases the balance and can slightly change the LTV. On a Brighton and Hove flat near a lender's 75% or 80% band, even a modest fee can matter. Our adviser compares the fee-paid and fee-free versions where the lender offers both, then shows the monthly cost and total cost over the initial rate period.