Downsizing protection allows customers to downsize and repay an equity release plan in full without incurring any early repayment charges. Many equity release products now offer downsizing protection, and Hodge offers this across its equity release product range.

Hodge has also offered a version of this feature on the Fixed-for-Life Retirement Interest Only (RIO) mortgage, and its recently launched Holiday Let products, an addition welcomed by mortgage intermediaries. It is now extending this facility across all of the 50+ and RIO mortgage products, under the newly-branded ‘Early Repayment Promise’.

Matt Burton, managing director of mortgages at Hodge, said: “Here at Hodge, we pride ourselves on our flexibility both in the criteria customers have to meet and the products that we offer; so it’s a logical next step to introduce the Early Repayment Promise across all mortgage products.

“For instance, our ERP enables a holiday let mortgage customer to dip their toe into the holiday let market, judge how the rental yields are and decide whether or not to stick or sell without incurring any Early Repayment Charges.”

The ERP is applicable for all customers who want to sell a property during the term of their mortgage and redeem the mortgage loan in full.

Burton added: “ERPs, or downsizing guarantees as they are also called, are attractive and very popular in the equity release market and so we saw no reason not to extend this attractive proposition to the rest of our products. We believe this added flexibility will be really attractive to customers looking for a 50+, RIO or our new Holiday Let mortgages.”

More information about Hodge and its products can be found at; https://www.hodgebank.co.uk/rio