First time buyer

Mortgage rates remain low but with first-time buyers now regularly in their thirties and older, the monthly cost of borrowing is still sometimes relatively high. This is because most mortgage lenders will not extend a loan past a borrower’s retirement age.

Mortgage Lending Criteria vary from lender to lender and they change fairly regularly. Set by the lender’s underwriters, the criteria are decided upon as part of the lender’s risk management of their entire ‘lending book’s’ portfolio.

There is little that can be done to speed up the process and, frankly, you should not want to do so. However, there are some simple things you can do to help smooth the process.

When most people now buy a new home, the Government recently introduced relief for first time buyers purchasing a home on or after 22 November 2017.

A mortgage broker is an intermediary whose primary function is to advise his client on the mortgage best suited to his or her individual circumstance and specific needs.

In today’s lending market there are a large variety of mortgage types. For the purposes of this article, we’re looking simply at repayment and interest-only mortgages.

A Homebuyer’s Report is one of several different types of report that can be purchased by the buyer of a property.

A Mortgage in Principle is something we recommend. It certainly helps strengthen a buyer’s position when they are making an offer on a property. So what is a Mortgage in Principle? 

When buying your home one of the critical points referred to by everyone is ‘exchange of contracts’. But what is it and why is it important?

A stress test is the term given to the process by which lenders assess the sustainable affordability of a loan to a buyer. Required by law to undertake such affordability tests as a result of legislation following the 2008 credit crunch and housing crisis, stress tests are there to protect the borrower (and the lender) for entering into ill-conceived or risky loan arrangements.

A ‘sealing fee’ is sometimes also referred to as a ‘discharge fee’, ‘redemption fee’ or ‘exit fee’. The fee, when charged, is usually between £100 to £300 and is stated in your mortgage’s terms and conditions.

If you go to an independent mortgage adviser like Mortgage Required who are not restricted to just one lender, then you will see lots of different mortgages, all with different terms.

After the 2008 mortgage bubble and crash, mortgage companies have been under a greater duty to make sure that borrowers are able to pay their monthly payments even if mortgage rates increased significantly.

A Mortgage Indemnity Guarantee (MIG) is an insurance policy that protects lenders if the mortgage repayments cease for some reason, perhaps due to death or a homeowner being made redundant at work. The MIG is NOT insurance protecting the borrower but is there to reduce the lender’s losses as a result of mortgage default.

Unless otherwise agreed, either party may withdraw from a transaction at any time before the purchase contract has been signed by both parties (or their authorised representatives) and exchanged. At this point a deposit is normally paid in consideration of the agreement and the deal becomes legally binding on both parties in according with the contract terms.

The house buying process can seem very long-winded and complicated but in reality it is just that so many different things need to be checked before the mortgagee will hand over the monies to the buyer’s solicitor and the buyer’s solicitor will hand over the monies to the seller.

Home insurance may cover a variety of ‘risks’. Most standard policies will list the risks covered and crucially which risks are either excluded or treated differently.

The Government has launched an “Own your Home Campaign,” offering various initiatives to help people onto the property ladder. 1st December 2015 sees the launch of the government’s Help to Buy ISA scheme for first-time buyers.

A tracker mortgage is very much like any other mortgage in most ways. However, whereas the standard variable rate mortgage mortgage interest rate is set by the lender, a tracker mortgage has its interest rate set with reference to in most cases, the Bank of England’s Base Rate.

How long is a piece of string? There are many variables at play when considering the ideal deposit to make your house purchase, but the primary one is most likely to be “What is the minimum deposit I can get away with to buy this house?”

As the name suggests, an interest only mortgage requires that you only pay the interest element of your mortgage in your monthly mortgage repayment.

A transfer deed is a document used in conveyancing in England and Wales to transfer real property from its legal owner to another party, and is the document used when residential property is sold.

A Local Authority Search is usually submitted by your conveyancer / lawyer. The search will be submitted to the appropriate Local Authority and will ask about any details relating to planned development in the immediate area & disputes and road works that might affect the property.

Stamp Duty is a charge levied in England and Wales by the Government and the cost of Stamp Duty is payable by the purchaser. It is a charge levied on all property transactions over certain transactional values

Two years ago the Government launched the first phase of it’s "Help to Buy" scheme, which has now seen more than 80,000 borrowers purchase a home.

Through the first phase of Help to Buy, (let’s call it H2B1), the Government provides an equity loan worth up to 20 per cent of the value of a new build home, interest free for the first 5 years, which can be repaid at any time or when the home is sold, with the borrower putting up a 5 per cent deposit.