Plain guides to how a mortgage works in the UK: what a lender will lend, the kinds of deal and their fees, applying, and what to do when a deal ends. Each one is checked against the regulator's and the government's own pages, and sits beside the calculator that does its sums.
01 What you can borrow
How lenders set a limit from your income and outgoings, how the deposit sets the loan to value, and what your credit record adds.
In this guide
Mortgages
What you can borrow is not one sum but two tests run side by side: a multiple of your income, and a check of what is left after your bills. The lower answer wins.
In this guide
Mortgages
Loan to value is one number that shapes which mortgages you can have and what they cost. This guide shows how to work it out, how it changes, and what is different on a new build.
In this guide
Mortgages
Buyers ask what number they need. There is not one: a lender scores your application with its own system, from your credit report, your application and its own records.
02 Applying
The first piece of paper a builder asks for, whether to use a broker, and each step of the application.
In this guide
Mortgages
A mortgage in principle is the first piece of paper most buyers get, and the one most often mistaken for a promise. Here is what it is, what it is not, and when a builder may ask to see it.
In this guide
Mortgages
A broker can search many lenders for you, but brokers differ in how much of the market they cover and how they are paid. Here is what to ask, what the rules say and how to check a firm.
In this guide
Mortgages
Getting a mortgage is a sequence of checks, each with its own paperwork and its own wait. Know the order and the dates, and far less of it comes as a surprise.
03 Choosing a mortgage
Fixed, tracker and variable rates, the fees beside the rate, and paying the interest alone.
In this guide
Mortgages
Every mortgage answers two questions: how the interest rate is set, and how the loan is paid back. This guide explains each choice and how to compare one deal with another.
In this guide
Mortgages
The interest rate is only part of what a mortgage costs. This guide lists every charge a lender or adviser can make, when each one falls due, and how to compare a fee with a lower rate.
In this guide
Mortgages
An interest only mortgage costs less each month because you are not repaying the loan. This guide explains how that works, the rules lenders follow and what happens when the term ends.
04 Your circumstances
What a first-time buyer can expect, what differs on a new-build home, and the proof lenders ask of the self-employed.
In this guide
Mortgages
What a lender will lend on a first home comes down to your income, your spending and your deposit. Here is how each is measured, and the help that exists as of November 2026.
In this guide
Mortgages
A mortgage on a new build works like any other, with a few twists: stricter rules on some homes, a valuer who sees every incentive, and an offer that has to outlast the build.
In this guide
Mortgages
Working for yourself does not shut you out of a mortgage. It changes the evidence a lender needs, and the income figure it takes from that evidence.
05 Savings and family help
Setting savings against the loan, what overpaying does, and the ways a family can help.
In this guide
Mortgages
An offset mortgage lets savings reduce the interest on a mortgage without being paid into it. This guide explains how that works, what it costs you in savings interest and what to weigh.
In this guide
Mortgages
Paying more than you have to clears a mortgage sooner and cuts the interest, but the money is hard to get back. This guide sets out how overpaying works and what to weigh against saving.
In this guide
Mortgages
Family can help you buy in several ways, and each one puts the risk, the ownership and the tax in a different place. Here is how the options compare before anyone signs.
06 Once you have one
The rate you move to when a deal ends, switching to a new one, and taking a mortgage with you when you move.
In this guide
Mortgages
When a fixed or tracker deal ends, your mortgage does not stop: it moves to the lender's own variable rate. This guide explains that rate and the choices you have before and after the move.
In this guide
Mortgages
When a mortgage deal ends, you choose what comes next. This guide explains what remortgaging is, how and when to do it, what it costs and what changes when the home was bought new.
In this guide
Mortgages
Moving home in the middle of a fixed rate does not have to mean giving the rate up. This guide explains how porting works, what the lender checks again, and what it costs when a port is not possible.
The guides explain the rules; these pages show the deals. Each is read from the lenders' sites every night and set out as facts, with the cost for comparison beside every rate.
The Bank of England's quoted rates by deposit, month by month, and what a small deposit costs.
2 year fixed, 10% deposit
Bank of England, since 20165.37%
Money
The Bank of England’s average quoted 2 and 5 year fixed rates at each deposit from 5% to 40%, their history since 2016, and the cost a month.
2 year fixed, last 12 months
Up 0.79 points in a year5.37%
Money
How each quoted fixed rate moved over 3 and 12 months, Bank Rate since 2016, and what moves the rate you are offered.
Homes within reach
Money
5% deposit mortgage figures: the Bank of England’s 95% rates, what a 95% loan costs a month on a typical new build, and which homes a 5% deposit reaches.
Short answers here; each links to the guide that goes through it.
A mortgage is a loan to buy a home, secured on that home. You put in a deposit, the lender pays the rest, and you repay it with interest each month over a term of years. Because the loan is secured, the lender can repossess the home if the payments are not kept up.
A lender works from your income, your outgoings and debts, and your deposit. It checks that you could keep paying if rates rose, and it caps the loan at a multiple of your income. Each lender sets its own limits, so two lenders can give different answers.
It is a lender’s statement of roughly what it would lend you, based on your income and a credit check. It is not a mortgage offer and does not bind the lender, but builders and sellers often ask for one before they take a home off the market.
No. You can go to a lender yourself or use a broker, who looks across lenders for you and may charge a fee. Either way, check that the firm is authorised on the Financial Conduct Authority’s Financial Services Register.
Unless you move to a new deal, the mortgage goes on to the lender’s standard variable rate, which the lender can change at any time. You can take a new deal with the same lender or remortgage to another one.
It works the same way, with a few differences: some lenders ask for a larger deposit on new homes, the valuer sees every incentive the builder gives, and the offer has to last until the home is finished.
Information, not advice. NewHomeSearch is independent: it does not arrange mortgages, is not paid by any lender or broker, and does not recommend a deal. The guides take about 205 minutes to read in all. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a qualified, regulated mortgage adviser.
Free mortgage calculators, set to your own numbers. Each is an illustration, not advice.
Every new build home for sale in England, with what your income and deposit reach, the schemes you qualify for and the cash you need on the day. Free, with no account needed.