Remortgage to pay off Help to Buy

Can I pay off my Help to Buy loan by remortgaging? How does it work?

As we speak today in November 2025, there are no new applicants coming onto this scheme, but a lot of people have already used it to buy their property. Typically, the Help to Buy scheme will own a percentage of your home – you own a bigger percentage.

If you want to buy them out of that share, the end of your current product term is a good time to review whether that’s possible. We’ll see if there’s enough equity within the property and you have the affordability to remove the Help to Buy interest in your property. That all has to stack up.

We can do that by remortgaging or, if you’ve got savings or another source of funds to add to that arrangement, that’s all possible.

Is it a good idea to remortgage to pay off debt?

Buying out the Help to Buy scheme isn’t something people usually perceive as remortgaging to pay off debt. The scheme was there to help people to get onto the property ladder – those who couldn’t quite reach the full mortgage deposit that they needed at the time.

In an ideal world, you would remortgage to buy that Help to Buy element out as soon as you can. Because Help to Buy technically owns a percentage of your property, if your home keeps rising in value, the monetary amount to buy them out is also rising. So the earlier that you can pay it off, the better.

You’re basically buying equity within your property, so that it’s fully owned in your name. In the long-term, that’s a really good idea.

What are my remortgage options?

Generally, we’ll be looking at how to finance removing that Help to Buy element. If you aren’t able to do that and your current product has come to an end, you can still take a new product. Often you’re better off staying with your current lender, because there’s a legal process around putting the Help to Buy charge over the property title.

You could theoretically move to another lender, but you would incur a lot of legal costs and lengthy processes. For most people, it’s not worth it – any savings from moving lenders tends to be eaten up by the legal costs. That’s definitely worth speaking to an adviser about.

What happens with Help to Buy after five years? New applications closed in March 2021, so the time is nearly up.

People who bought a property and took out a five-year fixed-rate mortgage are probably looking at this now. It’s definitely worth speaking to an adviser to see what your options are. But if you’re not able to buy out the Help to Buy scheme, nothing happens. Theoretically, that scheme could be in situ on your property title until you die.

There’s no timescale in Scotland – although I believe it’s different in England. The devil’s in the detail with these things. If you’re at all unsure, just make an appointment with us and we can look at your individual circumstances. But there shouldn’t be a time pressure on you from the Help to Buy scheme.

How do I release equity to pay off my Help to Buy debt?

It can be quite straightforward. It could just be raising a bigger mortgage, should the value of your property and your affordability stack up for you to do that. If you’ve had the property for five years or more, there’s every chance that it will work.

It can be done as a paper exercise. It will increase your monthly mortgage cost, because you’ll have a bigger mortgage – so that’s something to bear in mind. But it’s a relatively straightforward process and we do this regularly for clients.

Can you pay off Help to Buy monthly?

Generally, no. The details are in the paperwork – there are quite clear rules on how you buy them out. The neatest way is to buy it out in full.

Some schemes will allow you to buy it out in tranches, but you should take individual advice on this. Some clients set aside money to build savings towards buying out the Help to Buy scheme, which you could do on a monthly basis.