A common question of a homeowner seeking a remortgage is "How long is it going to take?"  The answer is usually about 4 to 6 weeks. The majority of that time is spent waiting so the homeowner should be prepared to be patient. The paperwork has many steps to go through behind the scenes and so while the paperwork itself is busy at work you will just be waiting.

Sometimes it can take a bit longer than 6 weeks if the remortgage is complicated or it is proving difficult for the homeowner to produce needed paperwork. A simple breakdown of a timeline would be:

In the beginning a homeowner should expect to spend a few hours shopping around to find banks or brokers to contact. Once a bank or broker is contacted then the homeowner will have to weigh options presented.

If the homeowner decides to go with a remortgage and has chosen whether to use a broker or bank then there is paperwork to complete. This process is short but could be lengthened if the homeowner does not have proper paperwork at hand.

Once paperwork is complete then a surveyor will have to be scheduled to take an appraisal of the home and property. This can take approximately a week.

Once the appraisal is complete it will probably take another week or two before the formal steps are taken to complete the remortgage.

The last few steps involve completing paperwork and switching to the remortgage which can take another two or three weeks.

The number of homeowners seeking remortgage has dropped over the last few months. This will help the process along since there are fewer cases going through the steps. Rates remain low with the base at 0.5 per cent. This makes it an attractive time for remortgage.