Hmm.

If you have not yet taken any of your pension benefits there is potential to release 25% of the value in order to fund a property purchase. I have a client doing that very thing right now. This may or may not be sufficient for your purposes, but any shortfall could potentially be made up from an unsecured loan which can be obtained for amounts generally up to £25,000.

Not to dismiss mortgages completely, but Nationwide have a minimum term of 1 year, Halifax have no minimum, and RBS have a 3-year minimum. Normally there isn't much scope, but there are a few lenders out there who will do short term.

Thanks very much for the update. Unfortunately, that is not an option. As you say yourself, 'Provided you have income to service the borrowing into retirement', and that has to be until the end of the borrowing term even though I would plan to pay it off earlier from capital resources.

In my case, my pension will be so far below my current salary that I would be unable to service a mortgage in retirement - let alone demonstrate that I would be able to do so.

I was a bit annoyed that this got moved to the Mortgage Thread because I had already explored this option and I am more hopeful of some other form of loan option (maybe 1-2 year bridging finance based on the property I will buy).

This really does need some creativity.

The simplest way would be to do a 5- or 7-year mortgage that only has a 2-year tie-in period. Provided you have income to service the borrowing into retirement, there are a number of mortgage lenders who will consider this for you, especially as you only require 40% LTV. At the end of the 2-year tie-in period you have the flexibility to pay it off in full at that time, or continue with it if things haven't gone as planned.

Speaking to a local mortgage adviser would be good for this, however I think that you should likely seek out a more qualified full financial adviser who can assist with planning your retirement income in the best way possible.

I live and work in Germany and am just 2 years away from Retirement. I have a healthy amount of capital (approx. 110k) but this is a little limited to buy a suitable home in the UK in which to retire.

I have 4 B2L properties (all currently rented) and I still have some equity in these at even today's prices. I would like to sell these but my Estate Agent is advising me to wait until at least May/June and it may then still take a while.

I do have other lump sums I am due from my employer, either on my retirement or before, and I currently earn a six figure salary.

I would like to buy a retirement property in the UK in the next 6 months so that I can start to phase my return to the UK but my advice, so far, has been that a mortgage of less than 3 years is not possible - and, of course, my salary will cease before then. (Actually, it is possible I could be retained on a separate contract after that but this is not certain).

Is there any way of borrowing up to 40% of the cost of a house for a very short period without paying extortionate interest rates and/or excessive arrangement fees.