Refinancing a Property

Refinance home

Want to take advantage of lower interest rates, consolidate your debt or reduce your home loan repayments? We can help, here is what you need to know when it comes to refinancing a property.

The solicitors at CM Lawyers understand that the purchase or sale of a property can be the most important decision you can make in your lifetime. Which is exactly why the right legal advice is imperative. We're quite often asked by our clients to assist them when they’re refinancing a property. They prefer us to deal directly with their lenders to ensure an efficient settlement of their refinance.

We aim to provide stress-free refinancing by helping you every step of the way and always keeping you in the loop with what's going on.

Our team believes that buying property should be an exciting time for you, and we have made it our aim to make the process as stress-free as possible. We keep our clients fully informed during the process of refinancing a property, ensuring that they understand what is happening at every point of the matter.

When it comes to refinancing your existing real estate interests, it’s vital that the legal aspect of the transaction is carefully managed from its outset to its conclusion. The experience of the solicitors at CM Lawyers ensures that our team can assist you with all aspects of your real estate transaction, from representing you in negotiations with relevant parties, to carefully reviewing and advising you on all legal contracts relevant to the transaction.

CM Lawyers will handle the numerous channels of correspondence required by the transaction, conduct all the necessary searches with the utmost degree of due diligence and ensure the integrity of payout figures and settlements, eliminating legal risk.

"CM Lawyers always aim to provide our clients with the most efficient service possible. We're all about smooth settlements, because legal property matters shouldn't consume your life."

CM Lawyers can assist you with refinancing your property by:

  • Providing detailed advice prior to the refinance to ensure that the transaction is planned to be efficient and run smoothly.
  • Providing independent legal advice in relation to the mortgage.
  • Dealing with the discharging mortgagee on your behalf.
  • Dealing with the incoming mortgagee on your behalf and satisfying all the requirements on the property requested by the incoming mortgagee.
  • Ensuring a smooth settlement between both the incoming and outgoing mortgagees.

Why do people refinance property?

Our clients come to us enquiring about refinancing their properties after reviewing their current home loan or investment properties for a multitude of reasons, including wishing to increase their borrowings for a particular purpose, wishing to take advantage of lower interest rates, consolidating debt or reducing loan repayments.

Taking advantage of lower interest rates: Some of our clients wish to refinance in order to get out of a high-interest loan and into a one with a lower interest rate, in order to draw on equity that has grown due to the appreciation of the value of your property. They refinance to take advantage of loans with better features, such as fixed-rate options, split loans, line of credit type facilities, redraw facilities, and more.

Debt consolidation/debt streamlining: This is the process in which high-interest rate debts – such as personal loans and credit card debt – are incorporated into one low-interest rate debt: a home loan. This brings with it a number of benefits, such as the reduction of the overall interest payable. Debt consolidation also allows you to manage your existing short term loans by streamlining them into a single long term loan. Before you decide to refinance your property and consolidate your debts, you should speak to a conveyancer, a mortgage broker to or your bank to see how the process works.

Reducing repayments: In times of financial difficulty, reduced home loan repayments can make a huge difference. A common way of reducing home loan repayments is to refinance your property. You may choose to do this if you find a home loan that offers a much lower interest rate or fewer ongoing loan fees. Whatever reasons you may have for wanting to reduce your home loan repayments, refinancing your property is a viable option that may help you in reducing your loan repayments.

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Preparing to refinance your property

Before you make a commitment to refinancing your property, ensure that you are provided with a detailed costing from your desired financial institution. Costs will be incurred when discharging your existing loan, such as a discharge fee, legal costs, early repayment fees, interest break costs and more.  These costs can be considerably high if you have a fixed interest loan and you’re paying out the loan during a time when interest rates are lower as your loan is likely to have provisions that require the application of a formula to reimburse the lender for their lost interest.

In addition to facing costs from your existing provider, your new financial institution will also have fees, which include an application fee, valuation fee, legal costs, title searches, registration fees and more. They may also insist on you taking out mortgage insurance, a survey, a council building certificate and other services.

When considering whether or not to refinance your property, it’s vital that you consider the loans offered by a number of financial institutions – a mortgage broker could assist you in this regard. They’ll also be able to explain to you the different types of loans available (such as fixed-interest, interest-only, principal and interest, variable rates – as well as the different types of “honeymoon periods” that may be offered) and advise you on which one may be the most beneficial to your financial situation.

When you’ve made the decision to refinance your property, you'll need to speak to a lawyer to obtain advice and ensure that the transaction from one financial institution to another is settled smoothly. Contact the conveyancers at CM Lawyers today to arrange a free consultation. You can give us a call or fill out the contact form to the left.