What’s the age limit on a mortgage? Biggest lender increases its cap
- Halifax has increased the age workers can take out a home loan from 70 to 75
- But many other lenders have already set their age limits at 75 or above
Homeowners can now have a mortgage up to the age of 75 with the country’s biggest lender, Halifax.
Halifax has increased its maximum working age from 70 to 75, for applicants wanting to pay off a home loan with their wages.
The lender said it was upping its age limit to help older workers who needed a mortgage later in life.
The extension only applies to capital repayment home loans, not interest-only deals.
A Halifax spokesperson said customers should consider if their ‘occupation is sustainable, and the plausibility of working to their anticipated retirement age’.
But many top lenders have stolen a march on Halifax and already set their maximum working age at 75 or above.
Lenders also have an age limit beyond which you have to have paid your mortgage off.
For some mortgage lenders this is the same as their working age limit, and for others it is slightly higher.
Some smaller building societies let borrowers pay off their mortgage up to even higher ages.
| Lender | Working age limit | Maximum age |
|---|---|---|
| Halifax | 75 | 80 |
| NatWest | 75 | 75 |
| Nationwide | 75 | 75 |
| Santander UK | 70 | 75 or retirement age |
| Barclays | 70 | 70 or retirement age |
| HSBC UK | 75 | 75 |
| Coventry Building Society | 75 | 75 |
| Yorkshire Building Society | 80 | 80 |
| Virgin Money | 76 | 76 |
| TSB Bank | 75 | 75 |
For example, Leeds and Chelsea Building Societies have a maximum age cap of 80, while Loughborough, Suffolk and Cambridge Building Societies have no age limits.
Chris Sykes, technical director at mortgage broker Private Finance said: ‘This is bringing Halifax in line with many of their competitors with the likes of NatWest changing these criteria last year and HSBC, Nationwide and Santander amongst others having it for years.
‘Extending a mortgage term past state retirement is not a decision that should be taken lightly but is what many are doing at the moment to make their monthly payments more affordable, hopefully as a temporary measure and the mortgage can be paid down quicker with overpayment or a remortgage at a later date.’
Gary Bush, financial adviser at MortgageShop.com, said: ‘This is great news and is often a concern to us with applicants as the UK general public are all clear in their mind that they will sadly be working until at least 75 now and so why should the largest mortgage lender in the UK have been restricting their repayment terms until age 70?
‘The large majority of UK lenders now have good flexibility in acceptable repayment ages and Halifax has now slotted into this.’