My wife and I are both 64 yrs old we have been trying to raise equity on our house but most weve been offered is £40.000.

Hi,

Most equity release schemes only up to a maximum of less than 50% of the market value of a house, so you won't be able to achieve your aim if you rely 100% on equity release.

Do you intend to live in SW France or the UK? If you want to become ex pats, you won't need your UK home and can sell at full market value, leaving you with a nice nest egg while you live abroad.

Alternatively you could "sell" your house to your children for ?110,000 (note that the below market value sale will be taken into account in the event of any inheritance tax being due) who could hold a mortgage against your home.

Hmm.

You could possibly re-mortgage your UK home as a BTL.

That should give you enough to buy in Gascony while having an income that covers the BTL interest only mortgage and gives you something extra on the side while retaining the ownership of a home in the UK as well as France.

I'm not sure if you can equity release on homes abroad, but if you can then you could do so with your Gascony property to free up a further ?30K-?40K for your own use.

Unfortunately, this would mean you couldn't Summer in the UK, unless you received enough rental income by letting out during the winter to cover your BTL mortgage for the whole year... Of course, you could then let out your Gascony home during the Summer to make up the lost income.