Coutts, Savills and other prime central London market observers head into 2026 with cautious but consistent optimism: a market that has been broadly flat to declining for over a decade appears to be approaching, if not already entering, a recovery phase, supported by falling interest rates, improving buyer confidence, and a supply environment tightening enough to support future price growth.
Speak to GMG about releasing equity from your UK property. Donald Klip, Co-Founder and CIO, Global Mortgage Group.
[email protected] | +65 9773 0273 | www.gmg.asia
For owners who have used equity release or bridging finance to access capital during the discounted years covered elsewhere in this series, this recovery phase raises an important and often under-planned question: what does the exit from that facility actually look like, and how should it be timed against the broader market recovery, rather than against an arbitrary loan maturity date alone.
Why Exit Timing Deserves as Much Planning as Entry Timing
A facility taken out during the depths of the discounted cycle, structured with a sale or refinance as its intended exit, should ideally be timed to complete once the market has recovered meaningfully, rather than at whatever point the original facility term happens to expire. Facilities structured with flexibility around term length and refinancing options give owners more control over exit timing, allowing them to align a sale or refinance with the market's actual trajectory rather than an inflexible calendar date.
"The clients who do best through a cycle like this one are rarely the ones who timed the entry perfectly. They are the ones who built enough flexibility into the exit that they could wait for the recovery to actually show up in the market, rather than being forced to sell or refinance at a fixed date regardless of where prices happened to be."
- Donald Klip, Co-Founder and CIO, Global Mortgage Group
Refinancing Versus Selling at Exit
As the market recovers, owners approaching the end of a bridging or equity release facility face a genuine choice between selling into improved pricing to realise gains, or refinancing onto a longer-term facility to retain the property and continue benefiting from further recovery. This decision should be revisited actively as market conditions evolve, alongside any currency considerations relevant to the owner's home jurisdiction, rather than defaulting to whichever option was originally assumed at the point the facility was first arranged.
Planning an Exit Into a Recovering Market
- Build flexibility into facility terms rather than committing to a fixed exit date at the outset
- Revisit the sell-versus-refinance decision actively as market conditions evolve through the recovery
- Track the broader prime central London recovery, not just the individual property's own valuation
- Coordinate exit timing with any currency considerations relevant to the owner's home jurisdiction
About Global Mortgage Group
Global Mortgage Group (GMG) is a Singapore-headquartered cross-border real estate finance firm operating across 23+ jurisdictions, specialising in equity release, bridging loans and structured property finance for international property owners. GMG works with private clients, family offices and their advisers to unlock capital held in prime residential real estate.
Donald Klip, Co-Founder and CIO
[email protected] | +65 9773 0273 | www.gmg.asia
This is part of GMG's Unlocked in the UK strategy series. The final article covers inheritance tax-driven bridging finance.
