EquityBankLoan is an independent resource for homeowners who want to understand how much equity they have, and what the realistic ways of using it are.
We are not a bank, a lender, a broker or a mortgage servicer. We do not lend money, we do not take applications, and we do not decide who qualifies for anything. What we do is explain how these products work and, as the site develops, set out what individual lenders publish about their own terms, with the source and the date it was checked.
How much equity do you have?
Enter three numbers to see your estimated equity and what borrowing at different limits would look like. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Illustrative additional borrowing
| Combined loan to value limit | Additional borrowing |
|---|---|
| 80% | — |
| 85% | — |
| 90% | — |
These figures are illustrative arithmetic, not offers. They show what each combined loan to value limit would allow, based only on the numbers you entered. They are not an offer, an approval, a preapproval, or a statement that any particular lender will lend to that limit. Lenders set their own limits and apply underwriting this calculator knows nothing about, including your income, credit history and the property itself. Your actual home value would be established by a valuation, not by your estimate.
Ways to access home equity
There are three common routes. They differ in structure rather than in quality, and the right one depends on your circumstances rather than on which is generally better.
Home equity line of credit, or HELOC
A revolving credit line secured against your home. You are approved up to a limit, draw from it during a draw period as and when you need the money, and repay what you have actually drawn. Once the draw period ends, a repayment period begins and you can no longer draw.
Because it is secured against your home, falling behind on payments puts the property at risk. Whether the rate is variable or fixed, and how long the draw and repayment periods run, differs by lender and by product.
Home equity loan
A lump sum secured against your home and repaid over a set term. Your existing first mortgage is untouched: the home equity loan sits behind it as a second lien, with its own rate, its own term and its own payment.
You receive the whole amount at the outset, which suits a known one-off cost better than an open-ended need. As with a HELOC, the property secures the debt.
Cash-out refinance
A new, larger mortgage that replaces your existing one, with the difference paid to you in cash. You end up with a single mortgage rather than two separate loans, which some people find simpler to manage.
The trade-off is that the rate and remaining term of your current mortgage are replaced by the rate and term of the new loan, on the entire balance rather than just the amount you are taking out.
If your first mortgage has a low rate, compare before you replace it
Many homeowners hold a first mortgage taken out or refinanced at a rate below what is available today. A cash-out refinance replaces that mortgage completely, so the old rate goes with it, and the new rate applies to the whole balance, not only to the money being released.
A second-lien option leaves the first mortgage exactly where it is and adds separate borrowing behind it. Only the new borrowing carries the new rate.
Neither approach is better in the abstract, and anyone who tells you otherwise is not looking at your numbers. Which one costs less depends on the rate and remaining term of your existing mortgage, the rate and fees attached to each option, how much you want to borrow, and how long you expect to owe it. Sometimes replacing the first mortgage genuinely is the cheaper answer. The point is that it is worth working out first, because a refinance is difficult to undo.
How we handle product information
We have begun recording what lenders publish about their own products. Three lenders are documented so far, on our lender pages, and the work follows one rule without exception.
Every material figure, meaning rates, fees, credit requirements, CLTV and LTV limits, borrowing ranges, draw and repayment periods, and where a product is available, will carry the source it came from, what kind of source that is, and the date a person checked it. Figures we have worked out ourselves rather than read directly will be labelled as interpreted, so you can tell the difference. Where a lender does not publish something, the site will say that it is not published, rather than filling the gap with a typical figure or borrowing one from a comparable lender.
The reason for the rule is simple: a comparison site that quietly guesses is worse than no comparison site at all, because it looks the same as one that does not. Research is AI-assisted and we say where, our research agent page explains how and what its limits are, and Michael Yanda is accountable for what gets published. The full method is in our editorial policy.
Nothing on this site is financial advice, and nothing here is an offer of credit. The calculator above is arithmetic based on figures you supply. It does not know your income, your credit history, or what your home would actually be valued at, and it cannot tell you what any lender will do. Borrowing secured against your home puts your home at risk if you cannot keep up repayments. Consider speaking to a qualified adviser about your own circumstances.