Mortgages

We offer an Independent Mortgage Service with up to date product information to find you the mortgage most appropriate to your needs, sifting through all of the information and liasing with the other parties who maybe involved in your transaction to ensure that everyone works together in making your transaction as smooth and stress free as possible.
 
The cost of financing a house purchase
 
Comparison of mortgage products can these days be increasingly more difficult. It is not always possible to compare mortgages on first glance based upon interest rates or the best buy recommendations in papers and magazines.
Close attention needs to be paid not only to the interest rate charged, but also to the way that interest is charged, which fees apply to set up and terminate a mortgage and anything that may tie you to a lender for any period of time such as Early Repayment Charges.
 
How are we paid
 
For mortgage advice you can choose how we are paid. For example; you can pay us via fee, £650, or by a combination of fee and commission, with an advice fee of £250 and commission from the lender for placing your mortgage (usually 0.3% for the loan amount).
 
We will discuss payment options with you and advise you of the actual amount payable for we begin to provide our service.
For more information about our charges please visit Ways to pay for our services.
 
For more general information about mortgages please continue down the page.
 
Equity
 
'Equity' refers to the difference between the price paid for a house, or its current value, and the mortgage upon it.
 
Generally speaking the interest charged is lower for those who have more equity (or have a higher deposit) in relation to the property's value.
 
Repayment Mortgage
 
This is the most popular type of mortgage, and generally the most often offered by high street banks. With a repayment mortgage you will make a payment each month which is the 'repayment' of part of the money that you owe, known as the capital, with the rest being the interest due. The interest portion of the payment will be largest in the earliest years of the mortgage.
 
Provided that you continue to make payments as dictated by your lender, and dependent upon their interest charges, your mortgage should always be fully repaid at the end of your mortgage term.
 
A decreasing term assurance is normally recommended to run alongside the mortgage to ensure that any debt would be repaid on death and/or critical illness, please see our 'life insurance' for further information.
 
Investment Backed Mortgages
 
Many Investment products can be utilised to repay a mortgage the most common being Endowment mortgages, ISA mortgages and Pension Mortgages
 
With such mortgages, you would pay interest each month to the lender, which would be a level amount through the whole of the mortgage ( as appose to a repayment mortgage where the proportion of interest reduces slightly with each payment). A separate monthly contribution will be paid to your investment plan in respect of saving to repay the capital at the end of the term. The amount owed to the mortgage lender will remain the same throughout the whole of the mortgage term.
 
With any investment backed mortgage a certain rate of growth has to be assumed (estimated). The repayment of the mortgage is reliant upon those returns being achieved over the longer term and unfortunately this is not guaranteed.
 
Due to the estimates required in relation to a repayment mortgage interest only mortgages with a separate repayment vehicle do offer more risk than a standard repayment mortgage and can be more expensive. If estimates about investment performance are better than hoped this can be an added bonus, however there is a gamble with this.
 
Investments can go down as well as up. You may not have have enough to repay your mortgage at the end of its term if the market performs badly.
 
This is a realisation that anyone with an investment backed mortgage must have from the outset.
 
Investment Products can still be suitable methods for some people repay a mortgage by. They should only be used if risks are fully understood and you understand and have experience of the investment market.
 
Please be aware that any mortgage adviser is not necessarily qualified to provide investment advice, or vice versa.
 
If your mortgage adviser is not appropriately qualified to provide advice on all elements of your mortgage you should speak to an investment adviser in conjunction with your mortgage adviser when receiving mortgage advice and making your decision as how to proceed.
 
Interest only Mortgages
 
Some lenders will allow interest only mortgages where no provision is made to repay the mortgage at the end of its term.
 
The debt owed will still need to be repaid at the end of the term, regardless of the fact that the lender is happy to accept the interest payment. They will enquire as to how the actual loan will be repaid and it is the individuals responsibility to make sure that they can repay the loan
 
If a repayment vehicle is not arranged some other way to repay the debt must be organised. This maybe via an inheritance, arranging another loan or downsizing to buy a less expensive property.
 
Term Insurance is often recommended to run alongside interest only mortgages to ensure that the mortgage can be fully repaid on death and/or critical illness. Please see the section 'life insurance' for further information.
 
Protection for your mortgage
 
Provision against death, accident, illness or sickness and redundancy are all important considerations when taking a mortgage. The costs of such cover should also be considered when applying for a mortgage.
 
Regardless of a change in circumstance the loan taken will still need to be paid. Should the worse happen this may lead to the property requiring to be sold to repay the loan at a time which could be considered the worst or most inconvenient time to need to do so.