Help to Buy Mortgage in Crowborough

The most common route is a bigger remortgage that covers the old mortgage and the Help to Buy redemption figure in one go. That is the cleanest way to clear the equity loan without selling up, and it is usually the route our Crowborough clients in TN6 ask for first. If your property was bought with a 20% equity loan, the repayment amount follows the current valuation, not the purchase price. On a home worth £363,375, that 20% slice is £72,675. The figure can move quickly if the valuation is higher than you expected, which is why the first calculation matters.

A workable example helps. Say your current mortgage balance is £180,000 and your HTB redemption is £72,675, then the new borrowing comes to £252,675 before fees. Against a property value of £363,375, that lands at 69.5% LTV, or 69.9% if you add £1,250 of fees into the loan. That LTV is often better than the one you started with at purchase, because the house in Crowborough has had time to move up in value even while the sold-price change sits at -0.73% over the last 12 months. Better LTV can open more lender options. Not every lender will like the shape of the case, but more will look at it once the loan sits below the old purchase level.

The pressure point is the HTB charge after year 5. Year 1 to year 5 is 0%, then year 6 steps to 1.75%, and after that it rises by RPI+1% under the scheme rules, plus the £1 monthly management fee. On the £72,675 redemption figure in this example, year 6 interest alone is £1,271.81 a year before the management fee. That is the line our advisers watch. If you are still inside a fixed rate, an early repayment charge on the existing mortgage may apply, so we run the maths before you sign anything and check whether the saving still stacks up.

• Current mortgage balance
• HTB redemption figure
• Lender valuation
• Legal fees

Crowborough’s sold-price average of £363,375 and asking-price median of £485,000 tell you one thing straight away. The value you can borrow against may be stronger than the number you bought at, but the redemption figure is still tied to the current valuation. If your Help to Buy loan is 20%, a property at £363,375 means a repayment of £72,675, and that is before you add legal fees or any lender product fee. People often focus on the old mortgage balance and miss the equity-loan slice. That is the trap.

The LTV after redemption can look better than you think. Using the example above, a new mortgage of £252,675 against £363,375 gives a 69.5% LTV, and adding £1,250 of fees takes it to 69.9%. That may move the case into a better pricing bracket with some lenders, although we never promise a particular rate or a particular approval. homedata.co.uk shows Crowborough sales at 229 over the last 12 months, which tells you the market is active enough for lenders to keep their eyes on it, even if the sold-price change is still -0.73%. The ask and sold figures do not have to match for a remortgage to work, but the valuation does need to be realistic.

The other local angle is risk and structure. homedata.co.uk flags low flood risk on available property data, which is helpful when a lender is looking at the security, and it means the file is less likely to be slowed by a property-level issue. Even so, the mortgage underwriter still looks at income, debts, fixed-rate ERCs and the size of the new loan. If the current mortgage is in a fixed period, the early repayment charge can matter more than the Help to Buy saving. That is why our advisers calculate both sides before you pull the trigger. A small saving can vanish fast if the exit cost is too high.

• 20% equity loan on £363,375
• £72,675 repayment figure
• 69.5% LTV on a £252,675 remortgage
• £1 monthly management fee stops after redemption