Skipton Intermediaries has launched what it has dubbed a ‘Hexit’ calculator to support brokers as they adviser Help to Buy customers on their next move in the mortgage market.

The Help to Buy Refinancing Calculator is available for brokers to download at the Skipton website.

Brokers are being given access to the Skipton calculator to help clients who are considering their options, including some who may wish to move away from Help To Buy.

The calculator is designed to help brokers:

• Understand how a client’s equity loan may have changed since completion;
• Compare the likely financial impact of repaying vs retaining the equity loan;
• Project the future size of the equity loan if not repaid;
• Compare monthly mortgage and equity interest payments in different repay/retain scenarios.

The aim of the calculator is to help brokers give their clients all of the available options when they come to the end of their existing Help to Buy mortgage and making the decision to either keep or repay their equity loan. The calculator does not provide a guide to staircasing.

Also available to download is a new guide for brokers “Help to Buy Refinance Options: How to support your clients during or at the end of their five-year interest-free equity loan period”.

Alex Beavis, Skipton’s senior products manager – mortgages, said: “As people’s circumstances vary we felt we should provide the tools to help homeowners make a decision regarding their future mortgage loan plans.

“We’ve created an industry-first Help to Buy Refinancing calculator, which enables brokers to explore the different repayment options for their clients regarding their equity loan.

“Brokers can input figures supplied by customers, including present monthly payment figures, length of mortgage and present house values, and the calculator will present different scenarios from which the brokers can advise.

“Once the figures have been inputted, some homeowners may wish to take a higher monthly mortgage in a bid to pay back the government equity share, while others may wish to keep the equity or even pay off an amount. The calculator will give brokers and their clients the opportunity to discuss their next mortgage move armed with more information than they might have had.”