Mortgage Glossary

Agreement in Principle

An AIP – or a Decision in Principle – gives you an indication of how much you may be eligible to borrow before you begin a mortgage application. For an Agreement in Principle, you will have to submit all relevant information about your financial situation to your potential lender or your mortgage broker. You may also be able to acquire an AIP online, using calculators on a lender’s website, or in their branch too.

APRC

The Annual Percentage Rate of Charge shows the total cost of a mortgage – including all related fees – over the term (this is usually around 25-30 years). An APRC allows borrowers to gain a realistic idea of how much their mortgage will cost them, during the full term. They were introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority back in 2016, and now all mortgage comparison sites, lenders and brokers have to provide information about product APRCs. APRCs, as well as affordability assessments, also reduce the risk of borrowers taking on debt, as they are fully aware of the costs and expectations regarding their mortgage payments in the long term.

Arrangement Fees

These fees are also sometimes called completion fees or product fees. They are a fee for the mortgage product and the lender having to process your request for the loan. They can range from £0-£2000 depending on the lender and the product. Some lenders will let you add your arrangement fee onto the mortgage so that you can repay the fee with your monthly mortgage payment. However, this will increase the amount you need to repay the lender, subsequently increasing the interest and repayments too.

Adjustable-Rate Mortgage

This type of mortgage is also known as a variable rate mortgage and a Standard Variable Rate mortgage (SVR). An adjustable-rate mortgage has an interest rate that can be increased and decreased depending on various factors, including the Bank of England base rate and the lender’s analysis of the competition and the wider market. Most mortgages, after their initial period, have this type of rate.

Bank of England Base Rate

In the UK, the Bank of England set the charges for lenders, such as banks and building societies, for savings and lending. This base rate increases and decreases over time depending on various factors, such as the wider economy and the property market. As this base rate increases or decreases, the adjustable rate of the lender will mirror it. It is considered the most important UK interest rate, as it also influences interest rates for savings account, credit cards and other loans besides mortgages.

Capped Rate Mortgage

These are variable rate mortgage, but unlike a standard variable rate mortgage, there is a cap on the interest rate and your payments cannot exceed this limit. A capped rate minimises the borrower’s risk of increasing interest rates. It also enables the lender to receive a higher return, when rates are low. Capped rates are usually only offered by lenders for an introductory period, and they are a rare mortgage product on the market.

Capital and Interest Mortgage

Quite simply, capital is the money that you borrow from the lender whilst interest is the charge that the lender applies for allowing you to borrow the money. A capital and interest mortgage – or a repayment mortgage – is where the monthly repayments you make are for both capital and interest. Usually, in the first few years of your term, your monthly repayments are mainly towards your interest, with a smaller part for the repayment of capital. Over time, this shifts, and you pay more towards the capital rather than the interest. This type of mortgage is the most popular on the market.

Conveyancers

In the context of getting a mortgage, conveyancers will liaise with your lender and the solicitor of the seller. They will manage any relevant legal documentation that is needed in order to transfer the ownership of a new property from the seller to the buyer. They will also conduct checks on the property to ensure that there are no potential issues, and will speak with the likes of utility companies to assess if there are any issues that may have an impact on your new property. Your lender or broker will likely have a conveyancer that you must use or, in some cases, they may recommend one to you if they do not have any existing partnerships with a conveyancer.

Credit Report

A credit report will show lenders the borrower’s credit history, which they will take into account during the affordability assessment within a mortgage application. Credit history will show a record of the borrower’s repayment of debts, highlighting how reliable and responsible they are for these payments. The credit history can be obtained from numerous sources including banks, government agencies and credit card companies.

Using this report, the lender will likely use a scoring model to generate a credit score for the borrower. Prior to applying for a mortgage, you could improve your credit score by reducing your credit card debt, paying your bills on time and ceasing all applications for new credit cards.

Deposit

When purchasing a property, you are required to pay a deposit. The required amount will vary depending on the type of loan you have. Recently, the Government have announced a new scheme that allows homeowners to get a mortgage with just a 5% deposit. These are available for properties under £600,000, providing that they are going to be your main residential home. As such, they cannot be used for second homes or buy-to-let properties, and therefore the mortgage types for these will likely require a different deposit amount.

The deposit will go towards the cost of the property you are purchasing and is a percentage of the property purchase price. Usually, the more deposit you save, the lower your interest rates will be.

Default

With any loan, defaulting is the failure to repay the money that you owe, including the interest on your loan. As a mortgage is a type of secured loan, where the lender has a legal claim on the property in order to satisfy the loan, a lender can reclaim the home of individuals that default on their mortgage. Defaults may occur when the homeowner can no longer make their payments on time, have missed payments or have stopped paying completely. There are steps that can be taken, when you get a mortgage, to ensure that you have support in place, should you find yourself in a position where you cannot make your repayments. As an example, you could take out Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance.

Early Repayment Charges

ERCs are penalties that lenders may charge in instances where the borrower wants to change or end their mortgage earlier than the agreed terms. The cost will vary depending on the lender and the terms of your mortgage agreement – some enforce a fixed fee, but it is more common for lenders to charge a percentage of the remaining mortgage balance. You can avoid ERCs by ensuring that you do not exceed your repayment limit, by selecting a product with no ERCs and by transferring your mortgage to another property, if it is portable.

Exit Fee

An exit fee, which is also known as a closing fee, is a charge you pay your lender for closing down your mortgage account. This may occur if you switch to another lender, remortgage, or you have paid off your mortgage. However, if you have paid a mortgage account fee already (a fee for the lender’s administration), it is unlikely that you will need to pay an exit fee, although an ERC may still apply if you are ending the mortgage earlier than agreed.

Equity

This refers to the share of the property that you own. As the value of your property increases or as you pay off more of your mortgage, your equity will also increase. The equity is made up of the deposit you have paid towards the property, as well as the amount of your mortgage you have paid off. Your equity should continue to increase as you repay the mortgage. Then, eventually, you will have 100% equity in your home. You may also hear about equity release, which refers to turning the value of your home into a cash lump sum.

Fixed-Rate Mortgage

With this type of mortgage, your interest rate will remain the same for a set period of time. Fixed-rate mortgages are one of the most popular types of mortgage on the market, despite the quantity of these products decreasing during the coronavirus pandemic. Many borrowers opt for a fixed-rate mortgage as it can offer peace of mind and consistency – they will know how much their repayments will be every month throughout this period, unlike with a variable-rate mortgage. Lenders will usually let you fix your rate for anywhere from one to 15 years, although fixing a mortgage for one year or 15 years tends to be rare. As a general rule, your interest rate will be higher, the longer your fixed-rate period is.

Flexible Mortgage

A flexible mortgage is a standard mortgage, but with some extra features for added flexibility. Whilst these features will vary depending on the lender and the specific product you have selected, common features include the ability to make overpayments and underpayments, take payment holidays and offset savings. Some flexible mortgages may also offer no early repayment charges if you wish to pay your loan off sooner than the agreed term.

Guarantor Mortgage

This is a type of mortgage that allows a close family member to act as a guarantor on your mortgage debt. This family member tends to be a parent, and their role means that must use their home or their savings as security for the loan that the new homeowner is taking out. They also become responsible for mortgage repayments, if the borrower fails to make them. A guarantor mortgage may be a suitable option if you are struggling to save the required deposit needed for a property, or if you have financial circumstances that could make lenders less likely to accept you for a mortgage.

Higher Lending Charge

Also known as a Mortgage Indemnity Guarantee (MIG), a higher lending charge is used by lenders for protection, in the event that you fall behind with mortgage payments – due to events such as death or redundancy – and they have to repossess your home. Some lenders will apply this fee if homeowners borrow over a certain percentage of their property’s value. This higher lending charge is then commonly used to purchase an insurance policy that will protect the lender against loss.

Help to Buy

The Help to Buy scheme is a government initiative that helps people to get onto the property ladder. The schemes include Help to Buy: Shared Ownership and Help to Buy: Equity Loan. These loans, from the government, will contribute towards the cost of a new-build property – you can borrow up to a maximum of 20%, and a minimum of 5% of the purchase price. The percentage that you borrow is determined by the market value of the property when it is purchased.

Impaired credit

Impaired credit, also known as adverse credit, occurs when you do not keep up to date with payments on any credit cards or loans. It is most likely the result of an uncontrollable change in financial circumstances, such as job loss, continued illness, or a decline in asset prices.

Impaired credit is a bad signifier, usually pointing towards an individual’s lower credit score or an entity’s reduced credit rating. Due to this, a person with impaired credit can possibly be seen as high risk by a lender. This might lead to less accessibility to credit facilities and having to pay a higher rate of interest on any loans.

Insurance (buildings insurance)

An insurance policy helps to protect you against risks and accidents. Thus, buildings insurance covers the cost of repairing damage to the structure of your property. This protects you in the unfortunate event of a fire, natural disaster, vandalism, or something as unpredictable as a fallen tree or lamp post.

If you are buying a house, your lender may require you to purchase buildings insurance in order to get the mortgage. Buildings insurance is also popular for landlords who rent out a property that they own. If you are a tenant, you do not need buildings insurance, however, you may like to consider taking out a contents insurance policy.

Interest rate

An interest rate is applied to any savings or loans. For savers, an interest rate is how much you earn on your money. In effect, it is the annual rate that your bank or building society will pay you for borrowing your money. Conversely, the interest rate on a loan is the cost of borrowing money from the lender, often shown as an annual percentage of the loan. This means that you will pay back the capital, which is the original amount of the loan, plus the interest.

The base rate, or bank rate, is set by the Bank of England for the UK. It is typical that when this base rate goes up, so will the interest rate that you repay on your loan or earn on your savings.

Interest-only mortgage

There are two different types of mortgage: a repayment mortgage and an interest-only mortgage. An interest-only mortgage lets you only pay off the interest on your loan each month, leaving the capital to be paid in full at the end of the mortgage term. This means that, although monthly repayments will be lower, the repayments will not reduce your debt. In other words, the size of your debt stays the same throughout the mortgage term.

An increasing number of lenders are beginning to offer interest-only mortgages which are aimed at those in or nearing retirement. You may see these referred to as retirement interest-only mortgages or RIOs.

ISA Mortgage

An ISA is an individual savings account. Therefore, an ISA mortgage is essentially an interest-only mortgage with the additional investment of an ISA. The borrower only repays the interest on the loan to the lender, putting regular payments into the ISA also. When the ISA matures, it is used to repay the capital. ISA funds are tax-free, which means that ISA mortgages can be particularly advantageous for those who pay a higher rate of tax. Depending on how well the ISA performs, you may not only be able to pay off your mortgage at the end of the term, but also get an additional lump sum, or even be able to pay off the mortgage early.

Land Registry Fee

 It is a legal requirement that all land that is transferred in the UK must be registered with Her Majesty’s Land Registry. Once the land is registered, any changes to mortgage, lease, title or other rights must also be registered. This makes it clear who owns what, and what rights and obligations each person has, protecting you and the transaction.

Fees for applications are commonly split into different scales. This includes Scale 1 and Scale 2 transactions, charges of registered land, leases, large scale, and fixed fee applications. You can calculate how much your land registry fee might be using HM Land Registry’s fee calculator.

Loan size

 The size of a loan might also be referred to as the loan amount. The loan size is the amount that the lender makes available to the borrower, plus any upfront costs or interest, and in turn, the borrower promises to repay this to the lender. The loan amount will be set out in the loan contract, which both parties will agree to before any money is made accessible.

Loan to Value

The loan-to-value is, put simply, the ratio between the value of your property and the value of the loan you take out, shown as a percentage. This determines how much deposit or down payment a person will have to make. Essentially, a loan-to-value ratio assesses the lending risk for the lender before they approve a mortgage. Those with a higher ratio are a higher risk loan, and so upon approval may have a higher interest rate.

There are many sources that you can use to calculate the loan-to-value percentage you will need for your mortgage, including this loan-to-value calculator.

Leasehold

A leasehold property is only owned for a fixed period of time, according to a legal agreement with the landlord, or freeholder. This is because the leaseholder owns the property, whilst the freeholder owns the land on which it is built.

The lease will stipulate how many years that you will own the property, which returns to the property of the landlord at the end of the lease period. This could be anything from years to centuries depending on the length of the lease. Leasehold arrangements are most common for flats, though houses can also be leasehold if they are bought through a shared ownership scheme.

Lender

A lender is an individual, public or private group, or institution which loans money to borrowers. Money might be borrowed for a variety of reasons, including a mortgage, a business loan, or a car loan. Upon borrowing the money, terms will be set which specify how the lender should be repaid, as a lump sum or in instalments, the length of the loan period, and what consequences there are for missing payments. Funds are made available under the expectation that all funds will be repaid, usually alongside interest and/or fees. Therefore, a lender will examine the borrower’s credit report and credit history before approving any loan.

Monthly repayment

With a monthly repayment, a set amount of the original loan plus interest is repaid to the lender every month. As long as you pay every monthly repayment correctly and on time, you are guaranteed to have repaid the entire loan by the end of the loan term.

An example of this is with a repayment mortgage, in which you make monthly repayments for the mortgage term, at the end of which you will have paid off the mortgage in full. The size of each monthly repayment depends on the size of the loan, interest rate, fees, and the mortgage term.

Mortgage advisor

Taking out a mortgage is one of the largest financial decisions you might make in your lifetime. This is why some people find it beneficial to consult a mortgage advisor, in fact, lenders and brokers must offer borrowers advice if they recommend a mortgage.

A mortgage advisor will look at your income, debt repayments, and spending, assessing what level of mortgage repayments you can afford. After assessing your financial situation, mortgage advisors will review the mortgages available to you, letting you know which lenders are most likely to accept your application and assist you with the necessary paperwork.

Mortgage financing

A mortgage is a loan taken out to buy property or land. In other words, a mortgage is a way in which you can finance the purchasing of a house. Most mortgage financing runs for 25 years on average, but the mortgage term can be shorter or longer depending on the lender.

Though a mortgage can help you finance the purchase of the house, ultimately the lender has the authority to repossess and resell your house if you cannot make the necessary payments each month. It is only once the mortgage is fully repaid that you fully own the home.

Negative equity

A property is said to be in negative equity if it is worth less than the mortgage secured on it. This is normally due to a fall in house prices and could make it hard to move to a new house or get your home re-mortgaged. A borrower is more at risk of negative equity if they have taken out an interest-only mortgage, as monthly repayments do not go towards the repayment of the capital.

You can calculate whether you are in negative equity by looking at your mortgage statement and having your house valued. If the value owed to the lender is higher than the value of the property, then you are in negative equity. You can reduce your negative equity by overpaying your mortgage.

Non-status loan

Many mortgages or loans require proof of income and extensive credit checks to prove that the borrower can make every monthly repayment. However, a non-status loan does not necessarily need this evidence in order to approve their loan, although the nature of this and what checks are required do vary between lenders.

This makes non-status loans useful for those who are self-employed or work freelance, who might not have the necessary proof of a regular salary. Instead, non-status lenders focus more on the value of the property and what the borrower wishes to do with the loan, reviewing every application thoroughly against numerous influencing factors.

Offset mortgages

An offset mortgage is when cash savings held in a linked bank account are used to reduce, or offset, the amount of mortgage interest that you are charged. By putting your money in such an account, as opposed to a standard savings account, you will not have to pay interest on the debt equal to the amount you have in your savings. This means that you can either reduce your monthly payments or pay your mortgage off quicker. Though you can still access your savings if you require a withdrawal, in which case the withdrawal amount will no longer offset your mortgage and repayments will increase.

Overpayment

You do not have to wait for each monthly repayment to pay off your mortgage. A one-off lump sum, a regular extra payment, or a combination of the two paid towards your mortgage is referred to as an overpayment. Overpaying on your loan or mortgage allows you to pay off your debt quicker and save money on interest payments as you do not pay interest on the amount you overpay. However, many lenders will only allow you to overpay a maximum percentage per year, so it is important to make sure you adhere to the rules of your repayment schedule.

Payment holiday

A payment holiday might be offered by a lender which allows you to miss the odd monthly repayment as agreed in advance, subject to conditions. Failure to pay monthly repayments without having agreed to a payment holiday will affect your credit score.

When you take a payment holiday, you take a break from repaying your debt, and so future payments are usually increased in order to make up for the missed payments.

Porting/portability

A mortgage that is portable is just how it sounds – it is a mortgage that can be transferred from your current house to the one which you are looking at purchasing next. Porting your mortgage means that you repay your existing mortgage when you sell your current property, and then resume the mortgage on the same terms with your new property.

As you are essentially repaying your mortgage early, you may be subject to an early repayment charge or exit fee, and other fees upon taking the mortgage out on the new property.

Procurement fee

To procure something is to obtain goods or services, generally the final act of purchase. Therefore, a procurement fee in this context is the fee payable upon procuring your loan or mortgage, in other words, the fee for the mortgage product. This might also pay for the lender to set up and maintain your mortgage account, as well as any other relevant administration costs. If you opt not to pay this upon procurement, you might be able to add this to your mortgage, but this will increase the amount you owe and therefore increase interest and monthly payments.

Qualifying ratios

This is a term that describes the devices that mortgage brokers and other similar financial institutions use in the loan underwriting process. The ratio will calculate a borrower’s ability to repay a loan, usually expressed as a proportion of debt to income, or housing expenses to income. These ratios play an essential role in determining whether or not an applicant receives approval.

Rate

A rate is typically expressed as the amount of interest on a mortgage loan in the form of a percentage. The rates are set by the lenders and can come in many different forms. For instance, they can be fixed rate and stay at the same level for the entire mortgage term. They can also be variable which means they fluctuate depending on the benchmark interest rate.

Redemption

Mortgage redemption is the act of paying off any outstanding balance, and other associated fees, on your mortgage. Redemption is one of the last steps before living mortgage free and can be a very exciting time for people. This process is also carried out by people who are remortgaging or are unable to port their mortgage.

Remortgaging

A common term in the UK, remortgaging involves paying off one mortgage with the proceeds from a new one, using the same property as the security. This process may help you save money, especially if you can find a cheaper rate and take advantage of more favourable borrowing and interest-only deals.

Repayment mortgage

This type of mortgage is a home loan where you repay some of the capital and interest each month. With this particular deal, you’ll pay off your entire term, which usually lasts around 25 years, as long as you meet all the monthly repayments. This is an extremely popular mortgage type and is the chosen solution for the vast majority of homeowners.

Repayment vehicle

This term refers to an investment a homeowner might have that runs alongside their 25-35 year mortgage as a way of repaying the loan. Repayment vehicles can come in many different forms, such as an endowment policy, stocks & shares ISA, a pension, bonds, and even a separate buy-to-let property. These vehicles are used in an attempt to repay the mortgage quicker than the timeline set out in the original deal. They can be beneficial but like any investment, there are always risks.

Repossession

A process we all want to avoid, and a term most people have heard before. This term describes the taking back of a property by the lender after the borrower is unable to, or won’t, make the agreed monthly repayments. The repossession process can be carried out by the mortgage lender, or they can pay a third party to do it on their behalf.

Reversion rate

A reversion rate is the rate that your mortgage will go back to after an incentive period or fixed-rate period ends. For example, if you had a 3-year fixed rate of 5.5% which reverted to 6.4% after that period, the reversion rate would be 6.4%.

Search

A search is completed by your solicitor or mortgage broker and involves them discovering information about the property and the surrounding area in which it is located. The search is carried out to determine if there are any current or future development plans in the local area which could affect the price of the house, either positively or negatively.

Secured (Loan)

A secured loan is what underpins a typical mortgage. You borrow money from a lender that is secured against an asset (usually your home). This security gives the lender reassurance that, if the worst comes to the worst and the homeowner cannot repay, they can repossess the house as a form of payment on the monthly repayments that they were unable to fulfil. These tend to be cheaper than unsecured loans because there is an asset involved.

Self-build mortgage

This type of deal is for people who want to take out a loan to fund a property that they are building themselves. As opposed to a normal mortgage, where you receive the money all at once, self-build mortgages deposit the money in stages, as the building work progresses. This drip-feeding of funds provides additional security for the lender who retains control and can pull funding if they feel the progression isn’t sufficient and not risk too much capital.

Self-certification mortgage

Once popular among freelancers, a self-certification type of mortgage was for people who were unable to prove that they had a regular income. The lack of regulation and unethical lending practices meant that self-certification mortgages are now no longer available in the UK. There are still products available for people who don’t have a standard income and/or complex circumstances, such as self-employed mortgages.

Stamp duty

You have to pay Stamp Duty (the full term is Stamp Duty Land Tax, abbreviated to SDLT) if you purchase property or land that is over a certain value. SDLT only applies in England and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, it’s called Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, and in Wales, it’s referred to as Land Transaction Tax. The current SDLT for residential properties is £500,000. This new rate comes into effect on 1st July 2021.

Standard variable rate (SVR)

An SVR is what most people switch to after they finish being on an introductory, fixed, tracker, or discounted deal. An SVR is usually the most expensive option and can go up or down depending on the changes in interest rates. With an SVR, the interest rates are set by the mortgage lender, not the Bank of England (BoE). However, the lender could decide to change their rates as a result of the BoE’s decisions.

Status

This is a catch-all term that describes the borrowed credit record and employment situation. For instance, the status of Joe Bloggs could be that he has a great credit record and is a business owner. The status of someone can help provide greater assurances and security to the lender, it can also provide vital information about the person who is applying for a type of loan.

Surrender

Surrendering your property is an act that involves giving your house back to the lender because you know you can’t afford to make the monthly repayments. Once you’ve surrendered your property, you would then typically try and find more affordable housing. This is different to repossession, as surrendering your property is a voluntary act. However, more often than not, selling your property is a wiser choice.

Survey

A mortgage survey is carried out by the lender to determine whether or not the property that is being purchased has enough value to cover the amount that they are lending to the applicant. A surveyor will inspect the property and present their findings to the lender.

Term

Term refers to the period of time over which your mortgage exists. A mortgage term is very much a long term thing. Typically, they can last either 25 years or to the expected retirement date of the applicant, whichever comes first. The terms are so long because they provide sufficient time for the homeowner to pay off the loan. Once the term has ended, the person living in the property will own their home outright.

Title deeds

These deeds are a series of paper documents that show the chain of ownership for the property and the land that it sits on. Title deeds take various forms and can include conveyances, contracts for sale, wills, mortgages, and leases. In recent years, deeds have been digitised making it much easier to find out who owns what land in England.

Top-slicing

This term describes the process by which a lender uses a borrower’s own income to top up the shortfall in rent that’s needed for the borrower to obtain the amount of money they require to purchase the property. Often found in buy-to-let mortgages, lenders allow landlords to use their earned income to make up for a shortfall in projected rental returns during the mortgage process.

Tracker mortgage

A type of variable mortgage that changes based on the Bank of England’s base rate. Choosing a tracker mortgage has positive and negative aspects, if the base rate is low you may have a period where you pay less. However, if the base rate increases, your monthly repayments could increase by quite a bit. As of June 2021, the base rate is at a record low – just 0.1%, as a result of the covid pandemic.

Underwriting

An important part of the mortgage process. Underwriting is the process by which an individual or financial institution, such as a broker, will take on the financial risk for a fee. The term underwriting originated from risk-takers who would write their name under the amount they were willing to risk for a certain premium

Unsecured loan

This type of loan does not require any collateral or security. Rather than relying on an asset (a home, for example), the lender relies on the creditworthiness of the applicant. These are riskier for lenders because they have nothing to recoup if the borrower can no longer make their repayments. Unsecured loans are rare in the mortgage market, chiefly because homes are the focal point of mortgages.

Valuation fee

The mortgage provider will charge a fee to value the property and make sure it’s worth the amount you wish to borrow. Depending on the property, the fee could range from £150 to £1500. This fee could be waived by certain lenders and prospective homeowners can pay a 3rd party to carry out the valuation. The valuation fee only takes into account the property’s value, not potential problems or future costs.

Year-end statement

A mortgage year-end statement will provide a summary of transactions made on that account for a 12 month period. The statement will also show you your balance at the end of the period, and the interest that you’ve been charged.