Mortgage switching & equity release: what banks permit for general purposes?

Caspero

When switching mortgages, do any of the Irish banks permit equity release from a primary residence for general purposes? I am aware that some do if one is for example renovating or has education-related expenses. I am interested in whether any permit this without such purpose, provided of course that the borrowers meet the relevant credit criteria.

The reason I'm asking is that I have built considerable equity, easily meet borrowing criteria for a larger mortgage and am considering an investment project which is totally unrelated to my house. The investment project is in another country so that rules out getting a loan from a local bank for it.

To illustrate with hypothetical numbers:
Current mortgage: 100k
House value: 250k
Current household income: 70k


I would like to switch/remortgage and end up with a LTV of 80%, so after the move my mortgage would be 200k. Therefore I would have released 100k equity and used the other 100k to pay off the current mortgage.



P.S. - while I recognize that many who don't know my circumstances may react with "don't do this because you could lose your house if you lose your job and can't pay back the larger mortgage", I'm not looking for suggestions on whether or not this is a good idea as I know my personal situation pretty well and am reasonably sure that I can appraise that risk myself. I'm just interested in whether or not this is something that any of the banks can do given internal and/or regulatory restrictions.

Addle

I think you won't get away with 'general purposes' for that amount.
If it was < €20k maybe.