I looked up one of the major banks in my country and the difference in mortgage rates and monthly repayments for different LTV ratios is as follows for a €500k

I looked up one of the major banks in my country and the difference in mortgage rates and monthly repayments for different LTV ratios is as follows for a €500k property with €50k down payment: LTV <50%: 3.75% €2668pm LTV >80%: 4.15% €2762pm Over the lifetime of the loan you'll spend roughly half of the time paying the upper rate and half paying the lower rate. However, if, over the first 10 years of the mortgage, your house halves in value due to a recession then you won't break the 50% LTV mark until year 15 (2040). On the other hand, if house prices were to increase by 50% over that period then you might hit the 50% LTV mark within 7 years (2032). The difference between the total mortgage interest in these two scenarios is €9216. The only thing that changed was the valuation of the home.