How much can I remortgage for?

How much you can remortgage for comes down to two things working together: your property’s loan to value (LTV) and the lender’s assessment of what you can afford to repay. There’s no fixed formula or universal maximum, so the honest answer is “it depends,” but understanding the two moving parts helps you get a realistic sense of your own figure.

How do lenders decide how much you can remortgage for?

Lenders look at your property value, your existing mortgage balance, your income, and your outgoings, then apply their own criteria and a stress test against higher interest rates. Two people with identical incomes can be offered different amounts because their properties, existing debts, or credit histories differ.

What is loan to value (LTV) and why does it matter?

LTV is your mortgage amount divided by your property’s value. Borrowing £150,000 against a home worth £250,000 is 60% LTV. Lenders price deals and set eligibility in LTV bands, often in 5% steps, and as a general rule the lower your LTV, the wider your choice of deals and rates.

If you’re remortgaging for the same amount you currently owe, your LTV may actually have improved since you first borrowed, either because you’ve paid down some balance or because your property’s value has risen. That improved LTV can open up options that weren’t there before.

How does affordability work?

Alongside LTV, lenders assess your income and your committed outgoings, then stress test the numbers against a higher interest rate than you’d actually pay, to check the mortgage would still be manageable if rates rose. This is why the amount you can remortgage for isn’t simply a multiple of your salary: existing debts, dependants, and other commitments all feed into it. If you’re self-employed, lenders commonly ask for 2 years’ accounts or SA302 tax calculations with tax year overviews, though some will consider 1 year; our self-employed bad credit remortgage page covers this further.

Does your bad credit history affect how much you can borrow?

It can, in a couple of ways rather than through any single fixed rule:

• Maximum LTV. Some lenders cap the maximum LTV lower for applicants with a history of CCJs, defaults, or arrears, meaning you may need more equity to reach the same borrowing amount.
• Affordability view. Lenders may look more closely at your outgoings and any existing adverse credit when stress testing affordability.
• Choice of lender. A smaller pool of lenders willing to consider your application can mean less competition on the maximum amount offered, even if your income and equity look strong.

None of this means bad credit automatically means borrowing less. It means the range of outcomes across different lenders can be wider, which is exactly why comparing options matters more than usual.

Why do different lenders offer different amounts?

It’s common to get different figures from different lenders for what looks like the same application. This isn’t inconsistency, it reflects each lender applying its own criteria on top of the same basic LTV and affordability principles. One lender might weigh existing credit commitments more heavily; another might take a different view of self-employed income, or of a satisfied CCJ from several years ago. This is one of the main reasons comparing more than one lender matters, particularly with adverse credit, since a figure that looks disappointing from one lender doesn’t necessarily reflect what the rest of the market would offer.

What role does your deposit-equivalent equity play?

Although remortgaging doesn’t involve a fresh cash deposit, your existing equity plays the same role a deposit would when buying, sitting alongside affordability as the second half of the calculation. The more equity you have relative to your property’s value, the lower your LTV, and the more room there tends to be both in the amount available and in the range of lenders willing to offer it. If your equity is limited, our guide on whether you need a deposit to remortgage explains how that affects your options.

What if you want to borrow more than your current mortgage?

Borrowing more than your outstanding balance, sometimes called releasing equity, is common when people want money for home improvements, to help family, or occasionally to consolidate other debts. The extra amount still has to fit within the lender’s maximum LTV and pass affordability, and if the purpose is consolidating unsecured debts, remember that doing so secures those debts against your home and a longer term can mean paying more interest in total. Our guide on how releasing equity through a remortgage works goes into this in more depth, and a further advance from your existing lender is worth comparing too.

What this means if you’re remortgaging with adverse credit

If you have CCJs, defaults, or missed payments on file, get a clear picture of your own LTV and pull your statutory credit report before you start asking “how much.” That way, when you speak to a specialist adviser, they can match your actual equity and credit position against lenders who are more likely to consider your circumstances, rather than working from a generic industry figure that may not apply to you. If existing debts are part of why you’re looking to borrow more, free guidance from MoneyHelper or National Debtline is worth exploring alongside any mortgage conversation.

For the practical costs involved once you know roughly what you’re borrowing, see how much it costs to remortgage.