How to release equity from your high value assets

Date 27 Jul 2022

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to make money, you’ve come to the right place.

Here at ReleaseMy Capital, we have more than three decades’ worth of experience helping clients release equity from their high-value items.

Whether it be a car, a luxury watch or a bespoke piece of art, we can provide short-term loans worth up to £2 million, helping you release the capital contained within your items whenever you need it most.

However, we also understand that borrowing money can be a scary thing to do. After all, with so much complicated jargon and the added fear of hidden fees, it can be hard to know which deals are the right choice for you.

So, with this in mind, we thought we’d teach you everything you need to know about the process involved in releasing equity from your high-value items.

Join us as we run you through the basics and answer some of the most commonly asked questions, helping you know all you need to know before agreeing to sign on any dotted lines.

What is Equity Release?

First things first, it’s important to know what equity release actually is.

In simple terms, equity release is a form of financial agreement that allows you to access the equity (or cash) tied up in a particular high value item.

While it may be more commonly associated with properties, as we’ve mentioned already, equity can also be released from a wide range of assets –as long as they have a high market value. These typically include:

• Cars

• Property

• Watches

• Art

• Jewellery & Gems

• Wines & Spirits

• Collectables & Objets d'Art

When to Release Equity from High Value Assets

With so many alternative forms of borrowing available, you may be wondering what advantages equity release has over others, questioning which situations it’s best used for.

Well, we’ve got you covered. Here are some of the main scenarios where releasing equity can be a more attractive proposition than taking out a credit card, loan, mortgage, or applying for any other type of borrowing:

If You Have a Poor Credit History

When agreeing to an equity release arrangement, the lender is technically investing in the high-value item you have to offer, rather than you as a person.

This means, therefore, that the lender won’t need to conduct a credit check during your application, allowing you to apply regardless of how bad your previous credit history might be.

If You Need Money… Fast

While we can’t speak for other lenders, here at ReleaseMyCapital, we pride ourselves on our ability to offer instant credit – and can often even deliver funds on the same day you apply.

Take our recent 2018 Ferrari 488 Spider financing application, for example. After verifying that the supercar was worth what was originally stated, we were able to send the requested £105,000 loan in just under two hours. Now that’s fast.

If You Want To Avoid Hidden Fees

Most traditional forms of borrowing not only take weeks to process but also contain a lot of complicated jargon and hidden fees that can make it difficult to know what you’re signing up for.

Here at ReleaseMyCapital, we hate hidden fees. Instead, we make it our mission to ensure you know everything you need to before agreeing to a short-term loan with us, without any fear of an unexpected hidden fee rearing its ugly head.

If You Want Ease & Convenience

When applying for a credit card, loan, or mortgage, you will often need to spend hours waiting in line at a bank without any guarantee that you’ll actually be approved for the funds you need.

Releasing equity on your high-value items bypasses this process entirely, allowing you to both apply and get approved from the comfort of your own home.

Releasing Equity from High Value Assets: A Step-To-Step Guide

OK, now we know the when and why of releasing equity from a high-value item, it’s time to get to grips with how the process actually works.

So, to make life easier, let’s pretend that you are the proud owner of a classic car collection with a market value of approximately £1 million that you’re looking to pawn. Here’s how the process would work:

Step 1: Virtual Valuation

The first step in applying for equity release is to give our friendly team a quick call. That way, we will be able to discuss your high value items with you in further detail.

We will then go through a virtual valuation with you, where you will need to show us evidence of the vehicles in question via WhatsApp video, in order to prove your ownership.

From these videos, we will then be able to give a rough estimate on how much your car collection is worth and the amount of equity you’ll be able to release from it.

If, for instance, your cars are estimated to match the market value of £1 million, you will then be able to release equity of any amount between a minimum of £5,000 and up to 65% of the cars’ market value (i.e. £650,000 in this example).

Step 2: Offer in Principle

The amount of equity you choose to release is entirely up to you and will largely depend on what exactly you need the funds for – whether it be a few thousand pounds for an upcoming holiday or significantly more to fund a property purchase.

Once you have decided how much you’d like to borrow, an offer in principle will then be drawn up and sent to you for your agreement. This will not only detail the rules of the short-term loan, but it will also state the length of the loan – typically six months as standard – and the monthly repayments you’ll be expected to make.

Step 3: Physical Valuation

After you’ve agreed to your offer in principle, our highly-experienced in-house appraisal team and carefully chosen specialist partners will then need to perform a physical inspection on the cars, to confirm their virtual valuation is correct.

In order to do this most efficiently, you will either need to deliver the luxury assets to us or we will arrange for them to be collected at no additional cost to you.

Following this physical valuation, one of three things is likely to happen:

1. The valuation matches up. If the physical valuation is found to correlate with the virtual valuation, the loan you’ve requested will be sent to your account straight away. You will then be able to use the funds as soon as you need to.

2. The Valuation Doesn’t Quite Match Up. If the cars are perceived to be worth less than they were virtually, this may influence the amount you’re able to borrow. As such, a revised offer in principle will be drawn up and sent out for your agreement.

3. The valuation doesn’t match at all. If the cars are in poor condition and don’t correlate with the virtual valuation whatsoever, we won’t be able to lend to you and will return your vehicles as soon as possible.

Step 4: Asset Storage

Assuming that everything goes smoothly and there are no issues with the physical valuation, your car collection will be securely stored throughout the duration of your loan.

While you won’t be able to access them while you’re paying off the loan, you can feel at ease that your cars will be carefully looked after, regularly checked and held within a fully-insured partner storage facility in case of fire, theft or damage.

You will then have your ownership fully restored and the car returned to you once the loan has been fully paid off.

Step 5: Repaying the Loan

While on the topic of repaying your loan, if you need a little longer to pay off the loan, we can offer a six-month extension to help you spread the cost.

Similarly, if you are able to pay the loan off early or overpay on particular months, that is absolutely fine. Just let us know and a member of our team would be happy to help assist you in any way they can. We also won’t charge you any additional fees for these services, unlike certain other forms of borrowing.

Summary

So there you have it – a quick whistle-stop tour through the process of releasing equity from high-value assets.

While we may have used a classic car collection for our example, the same process will apply regardless of the high-value asset. The only difference will really be the specialist we use to perform the virtual and physical inspections.

Our team here at ReleaseMy Capital can release between £5,000 and £2 million worth of equity from assets, depending on the market value of the high-value asset you have to offer.

For more information about our services, or if you have any further questions about the process involved, we are always on hand to help.

Simply get in touch with us on 0333 577 3000 or drop us an email at info@ReleaseMyCapital.co.uk. You never know. The solution to your financial problems could only be a phone call away.