Divorce House Split & Buyout Calculator (UK)
Work out the net equity in the family home, model different splits, and see whether buying out your ex looks affordable before you move into the wider settlement numbers.
The Family Home
Average 2–3 estate agent appraisals — not the Rightmove asking price.
Costs That Reduce the Equity
Estate agent (1–2% + VAT) plus conveyancing. Often modelled at ~3% for disclosure, even when nobody plans to sell.
On your mortgage redemption statement. Often waived if the person keeping the house stays with the same lender.
Want to Keep the House? (optional)
We test the new mortgage against an illustrative 4.5× income multiple. Lenders vary (roughly 4–5×) and stress-test outgoings.
Savings or family help that could reduce how much extra you need to borrow.
Your Home's True Net Equity
Estimated net equity before applying your current ownership share.
How Should the Equity Split?
Add your income on the left to test whether you could afford to buy your ex out and keep the house.
Three ways the house can go
A deeper read of the figures above — the same breakdown we email to you as a PDF.
Sell and split
The house is sold, the mortgage and any early repayment charge are redeemed, sale costs are paid, and the remaining equity is divided on the split you are modelling.
You buy them out
You keep the home, take on the whole mortgage in your sole name, and pay your ex their share of the equity — from cash, extra borrowing, or by giving up other assets.
They buy you out
Your ex keeps the home and pays you your share of the equity. They must be able to refinance the mortgage in their sole name and be released from any joint borrowing.
What to double-check
No obvious modelling flags yet. Add your figures on the left and the checks will appear here.
Documents that settle the argument
A valuation dispute is usually an evidence gap. Gather these before negotiating.
Get your buyout report
FreeA polished PDF — your net equity breakdown, all three scenarios, the affordability check and a checklist of what to gather next. Emailed straight to your inbox.
The house is only one part of the settlement.
Review your property figures and current ownership share before adding them to Form E.
Important limitation
This tool is illustrative modelling only. It is not legal advice, a property valuation, a mortgage offer or a prediction of a court outcome. In England and Wales, the final financial order depends on the full asset picture, housing needs, children, income, pensions and fairness.
Read full termsHow the house buyout calculator works
The family home is often the hardest asset to discuss because the headline value is not the useful number. A buyout starts with net equity: market value minus the mortgage, any early repayment charge and sensible sale cost assumptions.
Once the calculator has that equity, it applies the split you choose. A 50/50 split shows each person receiving half of the net equity. A 60/40 split shows one person taking more capital, which may be relevant where housing needs or children make an equal split unrealistic.
If you want to keep the house, the calculator then models the practical buyout. It estimates the lump sum owed to your ex, how much cash you can put in, the new mortgage you would need, and whether that mortgage is close to common lending limits.
House valuation guide
Use this if you need to decide what figure to enter for the property value and how to evidence it.
Wider settlement calculator
Add pensions, savings, business assets and liabilities once the house numbers make sense.
Worked example: buying out your ex
Suppose the home is worth £420,000, the mortgage is £260,000 and estimated sale costs are £10,000. The net equity is £150,000. On a 50/50 split, each person has £75,000 of equity. If you keep the house, you need to take over the existing mortgage and find a way to pay your ex their £75,000 share.
If you have £20,000 cash available, the extra borrowing needed is roughly £55,000, making the new mortgage about £315,000. The affordability question is then whether that new loan works on your sole income and outgoings.
The four ways the house gets dealt with
1. Sell and split the proceeds. Sell, repay the mortgage and divide the net proceeds in the agreed or ordered shares. Common when neither person can afford to keep the home alone, or both want a fresh start.
2. One person buys the other out. One of you keeps the house and pays the other their share of the equity, usually by remortgaging via a transfer of equity (until then, see who pays the mortgage after separation). This is what the calculator above models.
3. Offset the house against other assets. One person keeps the house and the other keeps more of the savings, investments or pension. A pound of pension is not worth a pound of house equity, because pension money is locked away and taxed when drawn — test that adjustment in the pension divorce calculator.
4. Defer the sale. Under a Mesher order one parent stays in the home with the children until a trigger event, typically the youngest turning 18 or leaving education, and the sale happens then. It protects the children's housing but keeps you both financially tied to the property.
Is the house always split 50/50?
No. Equal sharing is the starting point, not the answer. The most common reason the split moves is housing need: if the children live mainly with one parent, that parent's need to house them can justify a larger share of the equity, or a deferred sale. Earning and mortgage capacity, health and the length of the marriage also feed in. The settlement calculator explains the court's three-step approach.
On tax, transfers of the home between divorcing spouses under a court order or formal agreement do not usually attract Stamp Duty Land Tax, and since April 2023 separating spouses have up to three tax years after separation to transfer assets on a no-gain, no-loss basis for capital gains tax. Check the timing with an adviser if you separated some time ago.
Use the result as a property snapshot
Use your property figures as a starting point for Form E section 2.1. The calculator's Form E button saves them for you to review after signing up. Confirm your current ownership share separately from the settlement split you are modelling, and check the figures against your valuation and mortgage evidence.