Mortgage subrogation means transferring your mortgage to a new bank while keeping the same debt: the new bank pays the old one the capital you still owe, and from then on you make your payments to the new bank, usually at a lower interest rate with fewer fees. It is not taking out a new mortgage or cancelling the old one: it is moving the existing one to a lender that offers you better conditions.
This operation makes sense when at least one of these three conditions applies:
- Your current rate is above 3% and competing banks offer rates around 2.3-2.7% (the usual situation in 2026 for mortgages signed before 2024).
- Your mortgage has requirements that no longer benefit you (linked insurance, pension plans, accounts) and a competing bank offers an equivalent without those conditions.
- You have a significant outstanding balance (over €50,000) and at least 8-10 years remaining, where the interest saving outweighs the cost of the process.
If your mortgage has a rate below 2% or you have fewer than 5 years remaining, subrogation rarely pays off. In that case it is usually better to look at partial overpayments rather than changing banks.