Equity release

Leinsterview

My mother (aged in her eighties) is living alone in her own house -- this is in a Dublin suburb and is valued at about 230000.
She is interested in equity release based on this asset to fund a home care deal via a private outfit.
BOI used to do this via a deal called 'Life Loan' -- not any more.
Any ideas?

coylemj

I don't think anyone does this business these days, it only really works in a rising market.

Best advice even when those schemes existed was that they were a bad idea because where you sold a % of the house, the finance house offering the money used to put an extremely low valuation on the house and where they gave you a straight loan secured on the house, the interest rates were so punitive that the lender often ended up owning the house outright when the accumulated loan plus interest exceeded the value of the house so the householder would have been better off selling the house in the first place and pocketing a lot more cash.

Liam D Ferguson

Agree with coylemj - these can work out to be very expensive forms of raising money and should be viewed as a last resort only.

That said, if she's verging on desperate, I think Seniors Money may be still in business. http://www.seniorsmoney.ie