re-mortgaging a property

Yes they do, but with extremely strict conditions on what you can use the money for (normally only to refurbish / extend/ renovate the existing property), and typically only up to the value of what you have already repaid on your existing mortgage.

It's not uncommon in Belgium, and all banks will do it. The big advantage is you don't have to pay a lot of fees on your 'new' mortgage - even if you've paid up your existing mortgage. I know of tow people who have done this to buy a holiday home.You can read the info on this translated page: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=fr&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.c...

Remortgaging with another lender would have meant going through the costs of the legal side of the mortgage fo virtually no financial gain, so no-go.

Remortgaging with the same lender - they told us we had such a fantastic deal in the first place that they couldn't match it, let alone improve on it.

Borrow more? Not a problem - we can take out a 2nd secure loan up to the total value of the security on the property.