Refinance calculator.

There are four charges, and they're easier to predict than most owners think. Leaving your current bank costs at most 1% of what you still owe, or AED 10,000 if that's lower. Moving the charge at the Land Department is 0.25% of the balance. Then your new bank wants roughly 1% to process the loan, and someone has to value the property, for about AED 3,000 plus VAT.

Because the UAE Central Bank says so: early settlement can't cost more than 1% or AED 10,000, whichever is less. Owe AED 800,000 and you'll pay AED 8,000. Owe AED 4 million and it's still AED 10,000, which makes a big loan far cheaper to move, relative to its size, than a small one. People with large mortgages tend to assume it works the other way round, so they never check.

It comes down to how much you owe and how long you've got left, and that's the sum the calculator does for you. To give you a feel for it, a balance of AED 1 million with twenty years to go saves several hundred dirhams a month from a one-point cut, and you'd earn the switching costs back within about two years. If you only owe a little and have five years left, you might never get the fees back.

Put in the rate it reverts to afterwards. Say you're offered two years fixed, and then it drops onto a variable rate with a fat margin. Over the rest of the term that can work out dearer than a slightly higher rate that stays put. Ask the bank what the reversion rate is and run the numbers on that, whatever the headline says.

You'll have lost money on the switch, even with a great rate. All the fees go out on the first day, while the savings come in a month at a time. Before you move, compare the payback period with how long you really plan to hold on to the property.

Ring your own bank first. Most would rather give you a better rate than watch the loan walk out the door, and sometimes one phone call gets you most of the saving without paying any fees. You lose nothing by asking. If you do go to a new lender, push on the 1% processing fee. Banks fight over loans that are already being paid on time, and getting that fee halved or dropped shortens the payback a lot.

Most of the time, yes. When the property is worth more than it was, you can take a bigger loan and keep the difference as cash, as long as you stay inside the lender's loan-to-value limit, typically around 75 to 80% of value. Note that it's the bank's valuation that sets the limit. Your own estimate of the price doesn't come into it.

It can, so keep an eye on it. Stretch the loan over more years at a lower rate and the monthly payment falls, but you pay more interest overall. If you're switching to save money, and you aren't just after a smaller monthly bill, keep the same number of years left.

Don't count on it. The new bank uses its own loan-to-value cap and tests the 50% debt burden ratio against what you earn now, which may not be what you earned when you took the first loan. If your situation has moved on since then, find out what they'll lend before you spend money on a valuation.