Browse Forums Home Finance 1 May 13, 2011 10:15 am Hi All, First of all just wanted to say great forum with lots of helpful info. I'm still a newb at this so just wanted to get opinions/re-assurance that what I'm thinking is right. Just under 2 years ago my wife and I got a house built (PPOR). It was valued at $420K on completion. Borrowed about 95% so owed about $400K on a standard variable rate loan. The debt is now down to $370K but I believe the value of our house has gone up. Houses in our neighbourhood have been selling from $500K+. So here is my question: Just say our house value is now also $500K, would we be able to refinance/top-up our loan to 95% of $500K and put the new funds in an off-set account? That way we would be getting charged less interest? I hope that made sense. Thanks in advanced. BB. Use Equity to reduce interest? 3May 13, 2011 2:38 pm No because you are borrowing funds for no reason!! Ie putting them into a redraw is like having them in the loan plus you would have extra costs like topping up your mortgage insurance. Plus you normally cannot borrow back up to 95% - most lenders cap reborrowing at 90% Some things are worth waiting for. The biggest challenge will be if you take out a loan and then run out of money - you'll have an incomplete security and lenders do not like this so you can get stuck.… 2 19113 That sucks! Hope it all works out. Good to move away from steel anyway for all your reasons, but it's also thermally poor. 16 17890 If what you describe is correct then the brick wall has been dry lined with villa board. That basically means that the villa board is glued to the brick wall with… 3 8317 |