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In a nutshell, remortgages are home loans that replace your existing secured borrowing. Whilst it may feel comfortable to stick with the deal that you already have, homeowners may wish to consider remortgages for a number of reasons.

Renegotiate your interest rate

If interest rates have come down, you may wish to look into remortgaging to see if your mortgage repayments can be reduced too. Alternatively, if you have been on a fixed rate that has come to an end and meant that you have drifted onto the variable one, you may want to fix again to get some certainty about your monthly payments.

However, when doing your sums, you may wish to consider the impact of any fees lenders may charge for remortgages. Some charges can be hefty, and might outweigh the benefits of getting a new rate.

Doing up your house

Are you good at DIY? Or better still, might you prefer to be able to afford to pay someone else to do some work on your house?

You might be able to remortgage if you wish to make home improvements (this is often subject to you having enough equity in your property). Depending on the type of work that you intend to have done, lenders could approve remortgage application to fund works that add value and saleability to your house or flat.

Change in family circumstances

There could be changes in your life after purchasing your home. However, if you have a family, get divorced or have other major changes in your life, you might find that you need to remortgage to adjust your monthly outgoings accordingly.

Helping your kids out

If you have owned your property for some time, you may find that you may have built up a considerable sum of equity in it. Accordingly, you could wish to consider releasing some of that equity by remortgaging to help your children onto the property ladder or pay school fees, for example.

Debt consolidation

Is your mortgage your only form of debt or do you have others? If you have other forms of debt you may generally notice that they are more expensive types of borrowing than a mortgage. Mortgage lenders may offer lower rates of interest than unsecured lenders because they have something (your house) to fall back on. Accordingly, some remortgages might generally permit you to consolidate your existing debts into a bigger home loan.