How does porting a mortgage to a new property work?

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Porting is a feature offered by many (but not all) mortgage lenders that allows borrowers moving home during a fixed or discounted deal to keep their existing interest rate rather than paying an early repayment charge to exit early. **How the process works** When you sell your current property and buy a new one, instead of redeeming your existing mortgage and taking out a completely new one (which would typically trigger an early repayment charge if you are still within a fixed or discount period), porting lets you carry the SAME mortgage deal, at the same rate and remaining term, over to the new property. Technically, the old mortgage is redeemed and a new one is created simultaneously on completion of the sale and purchase, but because it is done as a "port," the early repayment charge is waived. **You still need to requalify** Porting is not automatic just because you want to keep your rate -- the lender still carries out a fresh affordability assessment and credit check as though you were a new applicant, and the new property must pass the lender's valuation and lending criteria. If your income, credit profile, or the new property does not meet current lending standards, the lender can refuse to port the mortgage, even though you were an existing, well-performing customer on the original deal. **Borrowing more or less than before** If the new property costs more and you need to borrow extra, the additional amount is usually arranged as a NEW mortgage tranche, on the lender's current rates (not the original ported rate), running alongside the ported amount -- so you can end up with two different rates on the same overall mortgage. If you need to borrow LESS than before (for example downsizing), you can usually port a smaller amount, though some products have restrictions or may still apply an early repayment charge on the portion you do not carry over. **Timing risk** Porting generally requires the sale of your old property and purchase of the new one to complete simultaneously or very close together, since the old mortgage needs to be redeemed and the new one created around the same time -- if your sale falls through after you have committed to the purchase, or there is a significant gap between the two transactions, this can create complications, and it is worth discussing exact timing requirements with your lender in advance. **Worked example** Someone two years into a five-year fixed rate at 4.2% sells their home and buys a new, more expensive one. They port the original mortgage balance at 4.2% to the new property (avoiding an early repayment charge that might otherwise have cost thousands of pounds), and arrange an additional new-borrowing tranche at the lender's current rate (say 5.1%) to cover the extra amount needed for the more expensive property -- resulting in a blended overall rate across the two tranches. **Practical tip** Before assuming porting is the best option, compare the overall cost (blended rate, product fees, and any restrictions) against simply paying the early repayment charge and remortgaging fresh with a different lender, since in some cases -- particularly if significantly better rates are available elsewhere -- paying the charge and switching lender can still work out cheaper overall.

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