What 15% Equity Means for Your Remortgage
Equity and LTV are mirror images of the same relationship. If your property is worth £300,000 and you have 15% equity — £45,000 — your outstanding mortgage is £255,000, giving you an LTV of 85%. Lenders use LTV to price risk: the less you owe relative to the property value, the more secure the lender's position and the better the rate they are typically willing to offer.
At 85% LTV, you sit in the middle ground of the residential remortgage market. You are one tier above the 90% LTV threshold, which means the pool of lenders who will consider your case is meaningfully wider. Many of the UK's largest building societies and challenger banks have competitive products specifically for the 85% LTV bracket, alongside the major high street banks.
It is worth checking your actual current LTV before applying, as many homeowners underestimate how much their property has appreciated. If house prices in your area have risen since you purchased, your actual equity could be higher than your figures suggest — potentially pushing you into a more favourable LTV tier with even better rates. Your broker can arrange a desktop valuation quickly and at no cost.
The step from 85% LTV to 80% LTV is also significant in terms of product range and rate. If you are close to the 80% threshold — perhaps with a small overpayment or a revised property valuation — it may be worth exploring whether you can push below it before applying. A broker can model the numbers and advise whether that step is financially worthwhile for your situation.
Which Lenders Operate at 85% LTV?
The 85% LTV tier is well served by the UK mortgage market. The majority of mainstream high street lenders offer products at this level, and the building society sector — which traditionally caters to a broad range of borrowers — is particularly active here. You are unlikely to need a specialist lender at 85% LTV unless your circumstances are genuinely non-standard, such as complex self-employed income, recent adverse credit, or a non-standard property type.
Some lenders have specific product ranges designed for the 85-90% LTV band, with competitive two-year and five-year fixed rates. Others price their products across a range of LTV tiers without specific banding. Either way, the number of live products available to a borrower at 85% LTV is substantially higher than at 90% LTV, giving you more scope to find a rate and product structure that genuinely fits your needs.
Competition between lenders at this tier also tends to be stronger than at 90% LTV. Lenders are more willing to offer incentives — free legal work, free valuations, cashback offers — at 85% LTV, which can meaningfully reduce the total cost of switching. When comparing deals, it is important to look at the overall cost of the product, including fees and incentives, rather than just the headline rate.
For borrowers with any complexity in their case — non-standard construction, mixed employed and self-employed income, recent credit events — there are specialist lenders who assess applications on a case-by-case basis at 85% LTV. These lenders tend to be accessed through brokers rather than direct, which is another reason why broker access matters even when your LTV is at a commonly served tier.
