Finding a mortgage at 60-plus
I received the following email and thought it might be of interest to others…
‘I’m aged 63 and need to downsize. I have a substantial deposit but will need a mortgage of some level, but am unsure of the type of mortgage that would be suitable or the duration.’
Provided you can convince a lender that you can afford the repayments, you should have no trouble getting a mortgage even though you’re over 60.
If they’re dubious about your ability on this score, as long as you’re confident that you can do it, offering a relative or close friend to act as your guarantor is likely to placate them.
There are about 40 lenders who will take on borrowers of your age and a couple will even consider the over 80s.
So, in theory, you could get a loan with a 20-year term, but because so few would accept you, your choice would be severely limited.
To give yourself a reasonable range of lenders and deals to choose from, you’d be better to go for the minimum term you can possibly afford.
If you could manage to repay your loan over, say, 10 years, you would be able to decide between about 20 lenders, including some of the biggest names.
But, for goodness sake, don’t simply head for your own bank - they can only advise you on their own products.
The only person who can go through all the options with you, and help you make the best possible choice for your needs, is an independent financial adviser who specialises in mortgages.
As for the type of mortgage, the choices are the same for a borrower of any age. It’s up to you to decide whether you would prefer a discounted or a fixed-rate deal, whether you want to go interest-only and so on.
