Remortgage costs
How Much Does It Cost to Remortgage?
Most people I speak to expect remortgage costs to be far higher than they turn out to be. On a straightforward switch at the end of a fixed rate, the total is often somewhere between nothing and about £1,500, and a fair chunk of that can be avoided or added to the loan. The real risk is not the fees themselves. It is picking the wrong deal because you only looked at the interest rate, or switching at the wrong time and walking into an early repayment charge.
Written by Jamie Alexander, CeMAP, director of AS Mortgages with 15 years in mortgages. Reviewed October 2026.
Leaving your current deal
Early Repayment Charges
This is the big one, and the one that catches people out. If you leave a fixed or tracker deal before it ends, most lenders charge an early repayment charge, usually a percentage of what you still owe. It tends to sit somewhere between 1% and 5% and often steps down each year. On a £200,000 mortgage balance, 3% is £6,000. Your mortgage offer or annual statement shows the exact figure and the date it drops away.
How to avoid it
Time it. Many lenders let you secure a new remortgage deal four to six months before your current deal ends, so you can lock in a rate now and complete the day the charge falls away. You pay nothing to leave, and you never spend a month on your lender's standard variable rate. If you are moving home, porting the mortgage to the new property can avoid the charge too.
When paying it makes sense
Now and then it is worth paying. If you are stuck on a high rate with only a small charge left, the saving on a new mortgage deal can be bigger than the penalty. We work out both numbers side by side before you decide. If you just need to borrow more mid deal, a further advance from your existing lender usually avoids the charge altogether.
Arrangement and Product Fees
The arrangement fee, also called a product fee, is what the new lender charges for the deal itself. Most are a fixed amount, commonly around £999 to £1,499, and plenty of deals have no fee at all. Some lenders charge a percentage of the loan instead, which sounds small but can run past £2,000 on a bigger mortgage. A few lenders also take a booking or reservation fee of roughly £100 to £250 when you apply, and that one is usually non refundable even if the mortgage never completes.
Upfront or added to the loan
You can usually pay the arrangement fee upfront or add it to the mortgage balance. Adding it keeps cash in your pocket, but you pay interest on it for the rest of the term. Add a £1,000 fee to a loan at 4.5% over 25 years and you pay around £670 of extra interest by the end, or roughly £520 over 20 years. If you can pay it upfront, that is normally the cheaper choice.
The trap
A low interest rate with a big fee is not automatically the best deal. On a smaller loan, a no fee deal often wins even though its rate looks worse, because the fee is a bigger slice of what you borrow. That is exactly what the calculator further down this page is for.
Legal and Valuation Fees
A remortgage needs a solicitor or licensed conveyancer to pay off your old lender and register the new mortgage at the Land Registry. Many remortgage deals come with free legal work, where the lender pays a panel firm to do it. If yours does not, legal fees on a standard remortgage usually come to a few hundred pounds, often quoted at around £300 to £500, plus small charges for searches and registration.
Valuation fees
The new lender will want to know what your home is worth. On most standard remortgages the valuation is free, and lots are done as a desktop or automated valuation with nobody visiting. Where a lender does charge a valuation fee, it is usually a few hundred pounds and rises with the value of the property. A full structural survey is something you would only pay for yourself if you had a real worry about the house.
Watch out for
Leasehold flats, shared ownership, a change of names on the title deeds or a transfer of equity all add legal work, so a free legal package may not cover everything. And if the valuation comes in lower than you hoped, your loan to value goes up and the rate you were offered could change. I would rather tell you that before you apply than after.
My honest view: the question is never just what a remortgage costs. It is what you pay in total over the deal you choose, fees and interest together, compared with doing nothing. That is the number we put in front of every client.
The full list
Remortgage Fees at a Glance
Here is every fee you might come across when you remortgage, with the sort of figures we actually see. Not all lenders charge all of them, and fees vary depending on the lender and the deal, so treat these as ballpark numbers and check your mortgage illustration for the real ones.
Fee
Typical cost
What it is and how to avoid it
Early repayment charge
Often 1% to 5% of what you owe
Charged by your current lender if you leave a deal early. Avoid it by timing the switch for when your current deal ends.
Arrangement or product fee
Nothing to around £1,499, or a percentage
Charged by the new lender for the deal itself. Pay it upfront or add it to the loan.
Booking or reservation fee
Roughly £100 to £250
Some lenders charge it when you apply. Usually non refundable.
Valuation fee
Often free, otherwise a few hundred pounds
The new lender checks what your home is worth. Higher value homes can cost more.
Legal fees
Often free, otherwise around £300 to £500
A conveyancer moves the mortgage across. Many remortgage deals include free legal work.
Exit or deeds release fee
Typically £50 to £300
Your current lender's charge for closing the account. It is set out in your original mortgage agreement.
Electronic transfer fee
Often £25 to £50
A small charge some lenders or solicitors make for sending the money. Not everyone charges it.
Broker fee
Nothing to a few hundred pounds
Ours is nothing. Remortgages are always fee free with us.
Stamp duty
Not payable on a normal remortgage
Only comes up if someone is being bought out through a transfer of equity, and then only above the threshold.
Fee versus rate
When Is Paying a Mortgage Fee Worth It?
This is the bit that trips people up. Lenders often sell the same product two ways: a lower interest rate with a fee, or a slightly higher rate with no fee. Which is cheaper depends on how much you borrow, how long the deal lasts and whether you pay the fee upfront or add it to the loan.
The quick break even check
Divide the fee by the monthly saving on the lower rate. That tells you roughly how many months it takes to earn the fee back. If the answer is longer than the fixed period, the no fee deal is probably the better bet.
It is not perfect, because a lower rate also pays off a little more of the balance each month, which counts in its favour. That is why the calculator below works out the true cost properly: everything you pay over the deal, plus what you still owe at the end.
Bigger loans, longer fixes
As a general pattern, larger mortgages and five year fixes tend to reward paying a fee, because the rate saving is spread over more money and more months. Smaller loans and two year fixes often favour no fee at all.
Worked example
Worked Example: £999 Fee or No Fee?
This is the kind of comparison we run every week. The rates are made up for illustration and are not today's rates, but the maths works exactly the same way. The setup is a £200,000 remortgage over 25 years.
Deal A
4.0% with a £999 fee paid upfront
Monthly payment about £1,056
Deal B
4.3% with no fee
Monthly payment about £1,089
Deal A is about £33 a month cheaper, so the £999 fee takes roughly 30 months to earn back.
Over a two year fix, Deal A costs £16,632 in interest and fees against £16,822 for Deal B. Deal A wins, but only by about £190. Hardly worth scraping the cash together for.
Over a five year fix, the gap opens up: £38,549 against £40,466, so Deal A saves roughly £1,900.
Add the fee to the loan instead of paying it, and the five year cost of Deal A rises to £38,736. Still the winner, but about £190 of the saving goes on interest.
Now shrink the mortgage to £90,000 over 20 years, same two deals, two year fix. This time the no fee deal comes out about £470 cheaper. Same rates, opposite answer.
That last line is why I never pick a remortgage deal on the rate alone.
Calculator
Remortgage Costs Calculator: Compare Two Deals
Put in your loan, the term left and two deals you are weighing up. The calculator works out the true cost of each over the fixed period, meaning interest plus fees, and tells you which comes out cheaper. Tick the box if you plan to add the product fee to the mortgage and it will charge interest on it.
Deal A monthly payment
£0
True cost over the fixed period
£0
Deal B monthly payment
£0
True cost over the fixed period
£0
Enter your figures above.
True cost means interest plus all fees over the fixed period, including interest on any fee added to the loan. For illustration only and not financial advice. Assumes a repayment mortgage, the same rate for the whole fixed period and monthly payments. Your actual figures depend on the lender's terms and your circumstances.
Saving money
Six Ways to Cut Your Remortgage Costs
None of these are clever tricks. They are the things that save our clients the most money, in roughly the order I would do them.
Start six months early
Begin around six months before your current deal ends. You can usually hold a new deal that far ahead, which means no early repayment charge and no time on the standard variable rate.
Ask what is free
Free legal work and free valuations are common on remortgages. Check what they leave out, such as leasehold work or a transfer of equity, before you rely on them.
Compare on true cost
Look at interest plus fees over the fixed period, not the headline rate. The calculator above does it for you in a few seconds.
Get your lender's offer too
Your existing lender may offer a product transfer with no legal work or valuation. It is worth having, as long as you weigh it against the rest of the market.
Watch your loan to value
Dropping into a lower loan to value band can open up cheaper rates. Our loan to value calculator shows where you sit.
Pay fees upfront if you can
Adding a fee to the mortgage means paying interest on it for years. Check the monthly mortgage repayments either way with our repayment calculator.
Broker fees
What Does a Mortgage Broker Charge to Remortgage?
Broker fees vary a lot. Some brokers charge a flat fee of a few hundred pounds, some take a percentage of the loan, and some charge nothing and are paid by the mortgage lender instead. Always ask before you start, and get the answer in writing.
For us the answer is simple: nothing. Remortgages are always fee free with us. The lender pays us a procuration fee when your new mortgage completes, and it does not change the interest rate you get.
There are no exceptions on a remortgage. It doesn't matter if the loan is small, your income is complicated or your credit history has a few marks on it. We never charge a fee to arrange a remortgage, and you won't get an invoice from us at any point.
If you want to know what your own remortgage would cost, send us your current balance, the date your deal ends and any renewal offer from your lender. We will come back with the numbers, fees included, and a straight answer on whether switching is worth it.
Questions
Remortgage Costs FAQs
How much does it cost to remortgage on average?
On a simple switch at the end of a deal, many people pay little or nothing, because free legal work, free valuations and no fee deals are all common. Where a product fee applies it is often around £999 to £1,499. The figure jumps if you leave a deal early and pay an early repayment charge.
Is it worth paying a mortgage arrangement fee?
It can be, mostly on larger loans and longer fixes. Divide the fee by the monthly saving to see how long it takes to pay back. If that runs past the end of the deal, a no fee option is probably cheaper.
Can I add remortgage fees to my mortgage?
Most lenders let you add the arrangement fee to the loan. Valuation, legal and booking fees usually have to be paid separately. Adding a fee means you pay interest on it, so it costs more overall.
Do I need a solicitor to remortgage?
Yes, legal work is needed to pay off the old lender and register the new mortgage, but many lenders include it free. With a product transfer you stay with your current lender and usually need no solicitor at all.
Do I pay stamp duty when I remortgage?
Not on a normal remortgage. Stamp duty only comes into it if someone is being bought out or taking on a share of the mortgage through a transfer of equity, and then only above the threshold. We will flag it if it applies to you.
How can I avoid an early repayment charge?
Time the switch so the new deal starts when the old one ends. Many lenders let you secure a rate up to six months ahead. If you are moving, porting may avoid it, and if you only need more money, a further advance from your existing lender usually does.
What is a deeds release fee?
It is also called a mortgage exit or discharge fee. Your current lender charges it to close the account and remove its charge from your home, commonly £50 to £300. You will find it in your original mortgage offer.
Is a product transfer cheaper than a remortgage?
Usually on fees, because there is often no legal work, valuation or exit fee. It is not always cheaper overall, because the best rate may be with a different lender. Compare the true cost of both before you decide.
How long does a remortgage take?
Typically four to eight weeks from application to completion. That is why we suggest starting around six months before your deal ends, so there is no rush and no gap.
Do you charge a fee to remortgage?
No. Remortgages are always fee free with us, whatever the loan size or circumstances. The lender pays us when your mortgage completes, so there is nothing for you to pay.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. We do not charge a fee for remortgage advice.
