Remortgaging in 2026: What You Need to Know

This year, 1.8 million people are coming off a fixed rate mortgage — and how you handle it could save (or cost) you thousands. Here’s what the experts on Ms the Word had to say about doing it right.

Rule Number One: Start Six to Eight Months Early

Clients who come forward six months before their deal ends consistently get the best options, because advisors can track the market and move them onto lower rates right up until completion. Leaving it later — waiting to “see what rates do” — isn’t caution, it’s a gamble.

Locking in a rate early means you’re protected from any rate rises, but you still benefit if rates drop before completion. It’s a genuine win-win, with no real downside.

Self-employed? This applies to you too — as soon as your year-end accounts are done and you know your remortgage is coming up in the next 6–9 months, get in touch with your advisor before making decisions that could affect your ongoing affordability.

A Remortgage Isn’t Just About the Rate

One of the biggest things people don’t realise: a remortgage can be a genuine financial tool, not just a rate switch. Common uses include:

• Home improvements — extending, renovating, or getting that dream kitchen by releasing equity (the value of your home minus what you owe)
• Investment — using released equity as a deposit for a buy-to-let property
• Life events — weddings, holidays, or other significant costs
• Debt consolidation — folding existing debt into your mortgage to simplify monthly outgoings

Using Equity for Home Improvements

If you’re weighing up moving vs. improving, a remortgage can fund the difference. Your advisor will look at your income, outgoings, and how much equity you can safely release while still meeting lender affordability rules — because your monthly payments will increase. Many home improvements also add value to the property, which is worth factoring into the decision.

Debt Consolidation: When It Helps, and When to Be Careful

Debt consolidation can be genuinely transformative — folding costly, high-interest debt into your mortgage and extending the term can lower monthly stress significantly, even if it means paying more interest over the life of the loan.

When it works well: if debt is preventing you from affording what you actually want to do (like an extension), consolidating it can free up affordability elsewhere — sometimes with little to no change in your overall monthly outgoings.

When to be cautious: consolidation should be a reset, not a repeated habit. It’s typically not something lenders will support doing more than once, and it’s worth having an honest conversation with a partner if debts are being combined into a joint mortgage — both parties become responsible for the full amount.

The panel was clear on one thing: there’s no shame in carrying debt or asking for help. A good advisor’s job is to remove the stigma, lay out the numbers honestly, and help you make an informed decision — not to judge how you got there.

Real Listener Question

“My fixed rate ends in 4 months. I have credit card debt I’d like to clear, and we’ve also been considering a kitchen extension. I’m worried about increasing my mortgage and wondering if I should wait for rates to drop. What would you do?”

The panel’s answer: don’t wait. The advice was to map out the full picture rather than tackling debt or the extension in isolation:

• Look at your full budget and goals, short and long term
• Some things may need to happen in sequence (debt first, then saving toward the extension)
• Factor in practical timelines — planning permission, for example, can take 18 months to 2 years, which changes when funds are actually needed
• A good advisor asks questions rather than dictating — the goal is to help you feel informed and empowered to make the decision that’s right for you, not to hand you a one-size-fits-all answer

The Bottom Line

Remortgaging isn’t just an annual admin task — it’s an opportunity to reassess your whole financial picture. Whether you’re locking in a rate, funding an extension, or consolidating debt, the message is the same: start the conversation with an advisor at least six months before your current deal ends.

Got a remortgage coming up this year? Share this with anyone who does, and get in touch with an advisor early.

Transcript:

Welcome back to Ms the Word, where we break down money, mortgages, and everything in between in a way that actually makes sense. Now, today’s topic is a big one, and one that could save you thousands if you get it right. We’re talking about remortgaging in 2026, and there’s 1.8 million of you coming off a fixed rate this year. So this episode is for you if you’re one of them. We’re talking when to do it, how to do it, how to use your remortgage properly, and the biggest mistakes people are still making when it comes to their mortgage. Because this isn’t just about switching rates, is it, ladies? It’s about strategy. So let’s get into it, shall we?

It used to be, if your deal’s up, you switch it, maybe you speak to an advisor, maybe you go to the bank, job done. But now it’s a lot more than that, isn’t it? So let’s talk to this panel of experts, because all of you ladies are speaking to clients every single day about their remortgages or their purchases. Are you finding clients are coming to you earlier because of what’s been happening in the market this year, or are they still leaving it too late? Who wants to start me off?

Gemma, we always advise people to come six months before, and those that are listening are getting the best options because we are managing to look at what’s available now, keep track of that, move them to lower rates all the way nearer the time of completion. They are absolutely getting the best option. Those people that are not doing that are actually putting themselves in a gambling situation, really. So those that are listening, we’re doing a really good job — six months before, funds.

Yeah, you should be looking at this. I think people don’t realise that, say rates aren’t that attractive right now and you haven’t got to complete for six months, you might feel like you want to wait and see what rates are doing. But if you hand that over to your advisor to do, you are protecting yourself from any further rises, but you are going to benefit from any reduction. So it’s a win-win, there’s no catch to that.

Yeah, I think that’s good advice. Shelley, what are you seeing right now in terms of behaviour — are people hesitant, waiting, unsure? And I think it’s important to say that at the time of recording, we’ve got this Middle East crisis going on, there’s a lot of conflict that is ongoing as we record. So what are you seeing?

I think there’s lots of worry, isn’t there. So we’re still having people coming off those COVID cheap rates — those beautiful five-year fixed rates that might start with a one or two, they’re still there. And as people are coming off of those and now looking at rates that might start with a four or even a five if they’ve got other issues, it’s a big jump. So I think I’m definitely seeing more concern for the market. And like you, I’m seeing some people — my clients coming forward at sort of six months, seven months, eight months even, saying “I want to be in touch because I want to be on this.” And other ones that have left it so late because they’re waiting and seeing, that then it’s too late to get it in exactly at the right time. So obviously we just have to work with how people want to work with us. But yeah, just in terms of behaviours, I think it is a little bit erratic, because the market is a little bit erratic and people are mirroring that. But what we just advocate for is people engaging as much as they can, as quickly as they can. And understanding that sometimes if someone’s left it very late in the process, it can then be quite difficult for us to action it same day or next, because of our own workload and other commitments. So just factoring some of that advisor time into their thought process about how quickly things should happen as well.

So the six-month rule is the main message, I think, here, and the most important thing we’ll say today. So if you haven’t already got that from those answers — six months before your deal ends, speak to somebody. Eight months before your deal ends, speak to somebody, because you can start to prepare mentally if you are going to have a cheap deal going up. Particularly if people are self-employed, that’s a big one, isn’t it — so if they’re coming to look at their year-end accounts and they know their remortgage is coming in within the next six, eight, nine months, speak to your advisor. Just make sure that everything you’re doing is going to stack up financially for yourself as well. You have the temptation to reduce your tax bill and squeeze everything down as much as you can, but that might then impact your ongoing options. So open up those conversations as early as possible.

Yeah, have your advisor on WhatsApp — just text them and go back and forth. It should be a lifetime relationship, that’s what we say, isn’t it. So, Jade, can we break it down a little bit, because we are obviously in the industry, so we forget that sometimes our language — “locking in a rate” — people watching might not understand what we’re talking about. So can you talk to me about what that actually means for a client?

Yeah, it means when you’re locking in a rate, basically it means that you are guaranteeing your rate at the end of your current fixed rate. So the reason why we speak to clients six months in advance is because — like Gem said — we’re picking the rate as of today, and that doesn’t mean that we can’t change it if the rates decrease, but it means that you can almost plan and budget your mortgage, your bills. We all know in this crisis the petrol’s going up, everything’s going up — it’s almost giving yourself six months’ grace to get yourself in a really good place, and knowing that you’ve got your rate ready to go in six months’ time, and if it gets better, you can get something.

Absolutely. And if it goes the other way, which we’ve seen, advise them to sell — you know, you’ve got that look. I think a lot of people are waiting and seeing. If you’ve got someone doing that for you, an advisor, you’re protected either way, aren’t you? So this is where it gets really interesting.

Okay, it is interesting, I promise you, we like this. So a remortgage isn’t just about picking a rate — we’ve talked to you about locking in your rate, but it can actually be a tool for other things. Now I see a lot of builders extending homes at the moment, and I used to walk around thinking, how do people have all this money saved up to do these extensions? Turns out a lot of people use their remortgage to do this. So who wants to talk us through how you can extend your house, get that kitchen you want, get that extra bedroom, using your remortgage?

Okay, so you’ve got a certain amount of equity in your house, and that is the value of the house minus your mortgage balance — the rest of that is known as equity. That’s where the magic is, right? So if you’re thinking, actually, I don’t want to move, I want to improve — which is the other big question in life — you can get your quotes, find out what it is you want to do and how much that is. And it’s actually at the remortgage point — or you can do it outside of the remortgage, but we’re talking about remortgages — to increase your loan to cover that bill and get all those works done. So you can use that opportunity to look at your options and make sure that you’ve got the funds there to pay the builders to get these improvements done.

So just to break down what you said — if I’m a customer, I need to see if I’ve got enough equity, to keep some money in the property and release some. What do I need to check to be able to access that extra cash?

So we will need to understand how much you’re going to need, if we can deem that affordable for the lender — I’m going to need to understand your income and outgoings to make sure that’s affordable, not just by the lender but by yourself, because your monthly payments are going to go up. So loan-to-value comes into account, you have to leave a certain amount in the property, and all of that could be spoken about with your advisor — what’s the best route, and what is it you’re planning to do with the money. Essentially, most home improvements are going to add value — now, the lender won’t value your property on what it’s going to be, but knowing that the value is going to go up might help you make some of that decision. It’s all stuff that comes under the advice.

Yeah, I love it — I did this. Has any of you done this? No — to extend your — yeah. Oh, so I’m the only one. But I did it twice. So the first time I got a secured loan, because I knew that the value wouldn’t improve, and that gave me access to more cash — we’ll talk about that in another episode — but I used that money to extend the house, and then the price of the house went up, and then I remortgaged, so I cashed in on that straight away. But an advisor will strategically talk you through that, and it was brilliant. And then we did the loft next, and we made so much money on our house — borrowed more to do it, but ultimately gained more as well.

So I’ve done something similar with investment — I’ve remortgaged, pulled out the equity within my home, gave myself a pot of cash then to go and buy a buy-to-let property. So that took the equity that was sort of sitting there doing nothing and turned it into an asset that was then generating an income for me.

So that’s just something else that we speak to people about. And just on top of that as well, I’ve spoken to many people, not just about home improvements or buying a buy-to-let, but — I’ve done it before for holidays, weddings, it’s quite a popular thing, just taking it out. And I think the thing also to bear in mind is if you do it in an advised way, we can look at your whole circumstances, can’t we — so people assume “I’m taking more money so it’s going to cost me more,” it doesn’t necessarily have to — we can keep the monthly payments potentially the same by increasing the term, for example, and we can even look at debt consolidation as well. These are sometimes an overall tidy-up of finances — folding things into the mortgage, stretching it out a little bit more, creates a much more comfortable position for you on a monthly basis. You’ll pay more interest over the life of the loan, as we know, but it can just be quite life-changing.

Yeah, let’s talk more about that, because this comes up a lot, and certainly when I spoke to customers — and myself — it was sort of a kind of secret that sometimes when I’d share it with people, they’d be like, “Wow, I didn’t know I could do that.” And I would explain to them that while you’re lying in your bed struggling to sleep because you’re worrying about your debts, there’s money sitting in the brick walls around you, in your house, that you could access, that might actually help this whole situation reset. So let’s talk a little bit more — when is it appropriate for people to borrow more to consolidate debt they’ve accumulated, and when should you be worried or cautious?

I think it’s a very, very personal issue — at the low end of that, I’ve had a client who wanted to release money for home improvements, but the loan she had was stopping her affordability calculation. But actually, if she consolidated the loan, she could then raise the money she wanted, and actually the increased cost, as it was, was pretty neutral, because she wasn’t paying for the loan anymore. So we achieved all the goals there — the monthly outgoing exactly the same, and now she’s refurbished her flat. So that was a lovely one — a very close personal friend of mine too — that was a really nice one that I could truly help someone with and see it.

At the high end of that, it might be because you’ve had a season or a difficult time in your life where finances have spiralled, perhaps — somebody’s lost a job, or ill health, or you’ve just overspent, as sometimes can happen. Sometimes it can be trauma-related, so we don’t judge, but we just understand that people can get into these sort of financial pickles, if you like. And actually a reset would just sort it out — because having lots of bad debt on credit cards accumulating lots of interest, and paying out huge monthly payments, just doesn’t work. So actually, if we say let’s pull it all in, learn some lessons from this, change our financial behaviour going forward, and then just smooth it all over, that can release so much stress and worry from people and transform their life in that way. I think that’s the key.

Yeah, changing that behaviour and learning why — and that’s what I’m saying. And on a very practical level, the debt consolidation conversation has to be advised, really, because what we have is calculators that can show what happens if you consolidate this debt into your mortgage. And more often than not, you’re reducing your monthly payment, but you might be paying more over the long term, and you have to show that to people and say, what does this look like? And then it becomes a really good conversation on making sure you can justify that. And more often than not, it feels like that reset, and it feels financially sound to do it still — and then sometimes it isn’t, and that needs to be clear as well.

And I think when it becomes a problem is if it’s a habitual thing — if somebody hasn’t learned. In fact, you’re not really allowed to do it more than once. Also, people need to be aware that if, say, Mrs Smith has some debts that are being consolidated into Mr and Mrs Smith’s mortgage, that is Mr Smith’s debt as well now. So things like that need to be discussed, and things like the fact that you are extending it over a longer period of time — as long as everybody’s fully aware of all of this.

Having that fresh start — I didn’t do it via a mortgage, but I did have an opportunity, which I was so grateful for, to have a complete fresh start with credit once, and it transformed my energy around money, my own journey to wealth, and actually it’s been amazing to experience. And so if you are in a position where you’ve got that hole in the bucket, as they say, and everything’s kind of fallen out, and you have an opportunity to plug that and start again, it can be absolutely life-changing.

Yeah, I’ve helped clients do that, and they were some of my most valuable conversations, because it was removing the shame, giving them a solution, and saying it’s okay — it’s okay to take this solution.

I think as well, what you said is — I’d sometimes find myself in conversations with clients where they feel embarrassed to almost tell you about the debt, and there’s no shame, there’s no embarrassment, that’s what we’re here for, we’re here to help you. So if anyone is looking to do anything like that, be very clear, be very honest — there’s no shame, we’re not here to judge.

And you have the partner situation too, don’t you — sometimes where one partner doesn’t know what the other has got personally. Yeah, so I mean, yes, we work in a discreet way, of course, but we always encourage people to speak to their own path — just situations — but I’ve had that several times now over the years, where it’s just coming, dealt with separately, and very discreetly.

Okay, so this is the part of the show where we bring in a real question from one of you, and in this scenario I think this is going to be really valuable, because we can actually give you some free, on-air, live mortgage advice.

“Hi Sarah and the team, my fixed rate ends in about four months. I’ve got some credit card debt I’d love to clear, but we’ve also been thinking about extending the kitchen. I’m worried about increasing my mortgage, and I keep thinking I should wait in case rates come down. What would you do in my situation?”

She gave me anxiety when you said “wait.” Absolutely not. No, don’t wait. Firstly — six months. But where should she start with a client like this? Where would you start — would you start with the extension, the debt consolidation, or would you just map it all out?

Map it all out. Look at the budget as well — what’s comfortable, what are the plans — and then map it out, because it could be you have to do one before the other, it could be you actually have room to do it all. So yeah, take it all into the melting pot — or the — what’s it, escape rooms, like puzzles, I love — to me, mortgages are not rates and calculations, it’s a puzzle, and I love it, that’s why I get excited about it. It’s like, right, this is what we want to get to, this is what we’ve got, let’s find the route.

Yeah, and it could be that you debt consolidate first, but we’re planning with you two years’ time to start planning for that extension, because then we’re going to do this — but it’s all about working for the short and the long term.

You can use the story around it as well — as much as you’re looking at logistically, have that honest conversation — what is your budget, I can tell you based on your outgoings, but actually what do you want to spend? You were saying you want to do an extension, but then you said you want to move in two years. Tell me, so I can help plan it — they’re my best sessions.

Yeah, and it’s a vision as well, isn’t it — sometimes people say, “I want to transform my house and do X, Y, Z,” and I’m like, “Well, do you need any planning permission for that?” “Well, I do, actually.” “Right, well, have you actually had the conversation with the local planners?” “Oh no, I haven’t.” “Well, how long do you think that bit’s going to take?” And when you timeline it all, actually that’s going to be 18 months, maybe two years — so we don’t need to have money sitting in the pot now, we need to look at clearing your debt and working out a solution, and working towards that, and then taking the actions to get you there for next time round.

And like you just said, asking them the questions for them to take control and being empowered — there’s so many clients I remember that said, “Just tell me what to do.” No, no — I want you to feel empowered with all the information to make a decision together, I’m going to help you get to the right decision for you by asking you those questions.

So, have we convinced you yet that remortgages are fun, and that you should speak to an advisor beforehand? Because look, you’ve got people here waiting to soundboard and mind-map your life for you, and see what your remortgage can do to help you get there. So if you’ve got a remortgage coming up this year, or you know someone that does, get them to watch this episode and get in touch with an advisor six months before. Thank you so much for watching, we’ll see you next time.