Do You Own an Apartment in Norway and Have Debts? This Is How “Refinansiering med sikkerhet” Works

Refinancing with collateral, known in Norwegian as refinansiering med sikkerhet and often called omstartslån – a "loan for a fresh start" – was created exactly for people in this situation. Below, I explain step by step how it works, what opportunities it offers, and when you need to be very careful.

Refinancing with collateral means transferring expensive consumer debts (loans, credit cards, overdrafts) into a single loan secured by your property.

Instead of repaying several separate unsecured obligations, you have:

• one loan,
• secured by your apartment or house (Norwegian: pant i bolig),
• with an interest rate similar to a mortgage, which is usually much lower than typical consumer loans.

The bank can offer better terms because it has solid collateral – your property. Its risk decreases, and so can your debt costs.

Simply owning an apartment or house in Norway is not enough. The key is whether you have so-called free equity in the property, in Norwegian friværdi. This is the difference between:

• the current market value of the property,
• and the remaining balance of your mortgage.

Example: your apartment is worth about NOK 4,000,000, and you still owe NOK 2,800,000.
In this case, the free equity (friværdi) is about NOK 1,200,000.

It is from this "surplus" that the bank can finance the repayment of your expensive loans and credit cards. The greater the friværdi and the more stable your income, the greater the chance that refinansiering med sikkerhet is even possible.

Although it may sound like a complicated banking topic, the process itself is quite logical:

1. List your debts
   Gather all your consumer loans, credit cards, overdrafts, installment purchases – along with balances, installments, and interest rates.
   
   
2. Property valuation
   An advisor or bank estimates the value of your apartment/house and calculates friværdi – your free equity.
   
   
3. New loan proposal
   If the calculations show that your expensive debts can be repaid with a loan secured by your property, a proposal is prepared: what your single installment would be, what the effective interest rate (Norwegian: effektiv rente) would be, and how much you pay today vs. after refinancing.
   
   
4. Repayment of old obligations
   After signing the agreement, the new loan repays your existing loans and credit cards, old credit lines are closed, and a new security is registered on your property – pant i bolig.
   
   

You are left with one installment
You have one obligation instead of five or seven, and a larger portion of each payment goes toward repaying the principal, not just the interest.

Before you even start talking about refinancing, it's worth knowing exactly how much and where you owe. Instead of digging through old contracts and statements, you can use GjeldsMonitor – an online application that, after logging in with BankID, shows you all your loans and credit cards in Norway in one report and suggests where you can save.

For many people, this is the first step:
👉 go to GjeldsMonitor, download the free report, and only then consider refinancing when you truly see the full picture of your debts.

1. Lower debt costs and more breathing room in your budget
Consumer loans, credit cards, and overdrafts usually have a high effective interest rate – effektiv rente. This is the total annual cost of the loan, including both interest and fees. For consumer debt, it can be really high.

A loan secured by property usually has an effektiv rente similar to mortgages, often significantly lower than typical consumer loans (the exact level depends on the bank and the client's situation). With higher debt, the total monthly savings can reach several thousand kroner, with estimates often mentioning a potential of around NOK 5,500 per month – of course, depending on individual amounts.

This is a tangible "breath of fresh air" in the household budget.

2. Omstartslån – getting out of collections and negative records
If, in addition to debts, you also have:

• active debt collection cases,
• negative betalingsanmerkninger (payment remarks),

then for most regular banks, you are a client whose new loan applications should simply be rejected. However, there are specialist banks (including Bluestep Bank, Instabank, Kraft Bank) that – in cooperation with brokers – consider more difficult cases if the client has property and free equity. They use the omstartslån product, or "loan for a fresh start."

In practice, this can mean:

• repaying existing debts under collection,
• organizing your debt history,
• the possibility of removing negative records after repayment,
• moving from the chaos of multiple arrears to one predictable installment.

3. Unlocking credit capacity before buying another property
Norwegian banks consider not only income, but also:

• total debt level,
• debt-to-income ratio,
• and unused credit limits – ubenyttet kreditt.

The mere possibility of borrowing on a card or overdraft, even if you don't use it, affects your credit capacity. Refinancing with collateral allows you to:

• repay and close expensive credit lines and loans,
• organize your financial picture,

which in turn makes it easier to obtain a finansieringsbevis – a loan promise before buying a new property.

Despite all the advantages, it must be stated very clearly: the collateral for the loan is your apartment or house. It can also be a property belonging to someone else, e.g., your parents.

If you stop repaying such a loan, in extreme cases you may risk a forced sale of the property. Therefore:

• this is not a way to get "easy cash",
• it should not be used to increase your debt just because "now you can",
• it should primarily be used to lower costs and organize debts.

A good decision starts with the numbers: how much you pay today, how much you would pay after refinancing, and how much your risk changes.

Refinancing with property as collateral is a process that requires:

• property valuation,
• debt analysis,
• designing new mortgage securities,
• and sometimes also involving specialist banks for omstartslån.

That's why in Norway, credit brokers (intermediaries) play a big role, such as Eiendomsfinans, who:

• work with many banks at the same time,
• also have access to institutions specializing in more difficult cases,
• match the solution to your situation, not just the offer of one bank.

Usually, the broker's fee is paid by the bank if an agreement is reached – the client does not bear any additional cost for the brokerage service itself.

For many people, the language barrier is just as stressful as the installments themselves. That's why it's good to know that at Eiendomsfinans, Aneta Musiał, a Polish-speaking senior credit advisor, has been working for years. Aneta:

• speaks Polish, Norwegian, and English,
• has been helping Poles in Norway since 2013 with buying property, refinancing loans, and consolidating debt,
• knows the practice of Norwegian banks: how they look at friværdi, registry entries, limits, and payment history.

In practice, she can:

• analyze your situation based on concrete numbers,
• check if you have sufficient free equity in your property,
• honestly tell you whether refinansiering med sikkerhet would really improve your situation or would be too risky.

If you want to speak with an advisor in Polish, you can contact Eiendomsfinans and ask to speak with Aneta Musiał:
>> phone: +47 97 40 00

A sample, simplified scenario (this is not an offer, just an illustration of the scale of costs):

• Loan secured by property: NOK 2,000,000, repayment period 25 years.
• Nominal interest rate: 6.5% per year.
• Effective interest rate (effektiv rente): approx. 6.9% per year (including fees).
• Monthly installment: approx. NOK 14,000.
• Total cost of the loan (principal + interest and fees): approx. NOK 4,200,000, of which about NOK 2,200,000 is interest and fees over the entire period.

Actual terms always depend on your situation, the bank, the value of the property, and your creditworthiness. We are talking about potential savings, not guaranteed results.