What 85% LTV means
Loan-to-value is the size of your mortgage as a percentage of what the property is worth. At 85% LTV you are borrowing 85% of the value and covering the other 15% yourself — either as a deposit if you're buying, or as equity you already hold if you're remortgaging. On a £250,000 property that's a mortgage of £212,500 and £37,500 of your own money.
Lenders publish their rates in LTV bands, and the price steps down each time you cross into a lower band. The bands are hard edges, not a sliding scale: at 85.1% LTV you pay the rate for the band above, not something in between. That is why a small overpayment or a favourable valuation can be worth far more than it looks.
The rates in the table are the deals available to someone borrowing at 85% LTV — which includes any product whose maximum LTV is 85% or higher. If your LTV is lower than you assumed, you'll see better pricing than this page shows.
The band where choice widens sharply
85% is a threshold worth knowing about. Below it — at 90% and 95% — lender criteria are noticeably tighter and pricing steps up in visible increments. At 85% you're firmly in mainstream territory: nearly every lender competes here, and the products look much more like the ones advertised at lower LTVs.
For buyers, this is usually the first point at which the deposit stops being the dominant constraint on which lenders will consider you. For remortgagers coming from a 90% purchase a few years ago, it's typically the first band you reach and the first meaningful rate improvement you'll see.
The 15% deposit decision
If you're buying with somewhere between 10% and 15%, the question is whether to wait and save the difference. There's no universal answer, but the maths is at least checkable: work out the payment at 90% and at 85% for the same purchase, and multiply the difference by the length of the deal you'd take.
Against that, weigh what the property market does while you save, what you're paying in rent meanwhile, and whether the purchase you want is available now. Waiting a year to save 5% is a clear win if prices are flat and a clear loss if they aren't — which is a judgement, not a calculation.
For remortgagers the question is simpler and the answer is usually yes: if you're at 87% and a modest overpayment gets you to 85% before your deal ends, do it. The cost is known and the benefit applies to your full balance.
What to check at 85% LTV
Fee structures vary more at this level than lower down. Lenders competing for 85% business often lead with cashback or free valuations rather than the sharpest rate, so the ranking by headline rate and the ranking by total cost can differ noticeably.
Also check the maximum LTV on the specific product rather than the lender's general range. A lender may advertise a keen rate at 85% that is only available on purchases and not remortgages, or that excludes flats or new-build properties.
Common questions
What does 85% LTV mean?
You're borrowing 85% of the property's value with a 15% deposit or 15% equity. On a £300,000 property that's a £255,000 mortgage and £45,000 of your own money.
Is 15% a good deposit?
It's a solid position. At 85% LTV you have access to most mainstream lenders and noticeably better pricing than at 90% or 95%, though not the sharpest rates in the market — those sit at 75% and 60%.
How much better are rates at 85% than 90%?
The step is usually meaningful, though its size varies with market conditions. It's generally larger than the step from 85% to 75%, because lender risk falls fastest as you move away from the high-LTV end.
Can I remortgage to 85% LTV to release equity?
Yes, borrowing back up to 85% is a common way to fund home improvements. The lender will assess affordability on the full new balance, and the higher LTV means a more expensive rate than staying where you are.
How current are the rates on this page?
We collect product data from the lenders we track from their published information and refresh it regularly, so the deals above are the ones a borrower at 85% LTV could access at our most recent check. Lenders can withdraw or reprice a deal at any time, sometimes with a few hours' notice, and a rate shown here is not an offer — availability depends on your circumstances, the property and the lender's own criteria.