Author : Russell Bowyer

With most people it is the equity in your home that will be put towards a deposit to buy a new house. If the equity in your house has increased since you bought your home, you’ll be able to use it as a larger deposit. This will allow you to either secure a lower mortgage amount on your new house or to buy a more expensive home. Having a lower mortgage percentage typically reduces the mortgage rates, as this poses a lower risk to the lender. If you are looking to downsize and your equity is high enough compared to the value of your new house, you may even be able to buy a new home outright. If your equity is significantly large and you downsize in terms of house value and you buy a new house that has a value less than the total equity you release, you’ll have freed up some of your equity into cash.

The length of time between exchange and completion is whatever the parties who are involved agree to. The gap between exchange and completion is usually anywhere between one to four weeks. This gap allows everyone involved enough time to organise removals, to change utilities and notify friends and others about a change of address. Plus to allow time for the finances to be drawn down. Once contracts have been exchanged it allows both the buyers and the sellers to confirm their removal date and to start packing. But there doesn’t need to be a gap, as the minimum time between exchange and completion can be zero days. Or in other words a same-day exchange and completion.