Mortgage comparison: Best mortgage deals
Found your home sweet home? Then make your move with a super-sweet, money-saving mortgage.
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Mortgages Customer Satisfaction
Customers in our survey rated L&C ★★★★★
We know that deciding to take out a mortgage is a big financial commitment – something that you shouldn’t rush into without exploring your available options. That’s why we have designed this page to help you cut through the industry jargon to better understand how mortgages work and how you should compare the different deals that are out there.
Mortgage calculators
How much can I borrow?
Estimate the size of mortgage that will be available to you based on factors like your income and deposit.
How much will it cost?
Estimate your monthly repayments in seconds from your mortgage amount, interest rate and duration.
How much stamp duty will I pay?
Buying a property over £125,000? Calculate how much you will pay in stamp duty with our handy calculator.
Best mortgage lenders for customer satisfaction
We asked mortgage holders to rate their satisfaction with the service they had received from their lender, and also whether they would recommend their mortgage provider to a friend. We have shown both results for the brands listed in the table below. Our independent survey of 750 mortgage customers was carried out in December 2019.
| Overall satisfaction | Customers who’d recommend | Issuer | Review | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★★★★★ | 93% |  | L&C is the country’s largest fee-free mortgage broker. With access to over 90 lenders, it is able to advise on a vast choice of mortgages depending on a borrower’s personal circumstances, and has racked up an impressive 93% ‘would recommend’ score from the customers we surveyed. | Visit broker |
| ★★★★★ | 84% |  | As the UK’s second largest mortgage provider, the building society offers a wide range of fixed rate and tracker products. Founded in 1846 as a mutual financial institution, Nationwide is run for the benefit of its members, and consistently ranks highly for customer service. | Compare with broker |
| ★★★★★ | 80% |  | Now part of Lloyds Banking Group, Halifax offers one of the largest number of mortgages from a single lender, particularly in the fixed-rate space. Not always the top ranked for competitive rates, the bank does poll well for customer service. | Compare with broker |
| ★★★★★ | 80% |  | As with its sister brand Halifax, Lloyds lists an extensive range of mortgages, particularly fixed-term deals lasting two, three, five or 10 years. It lends on loan-to-value (LTV) ratios of up to 95%, and is recommended by four out of five customers in our survey. | Compare with broker |
| ★★★★★ | 79% |  | The UK’s biggest bank is not one of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders, with fewer specialist products in its range. But HSBC does offer fixed and variable mortgages at rates that are consistently among the most competitive. | Compare with broker |
| ★★★★★ | 79% |  | NatWest is part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group and has a wide range of mortgages available, including offset products. The bank will consider applications from all would-be borrowers on a case-by-case basis and its online features are often praised by customers. | Compare with broker |
| ★★★★★ | 79% |  | Santander is another provider offering 95% mortgages to first-time homebuyers, and often ranks highly in best-rates tables. The bank’s customer service performance also generally polls well. | Compare with broker |
| ★★★★★ | 73% |  | Virgin Money first began operating as a bank in 2010, developing its mortgage and saving products before its current account. Predominantly online-based, in 2019 the lender was the first in the UK to launch a 15-year fixed term mortgage. | Compare with broker |
| ★★★★★ | 63% |  | The bank mainly offers fixed rate mortgages, along with some tracker products. While Barclays often has leading rates, only around two-thirds of customers we surveyed would recommend the lender from a customer service point of view. | Compare with broker |
| ★★★★★ | 57% |  | The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is part of the same banking group as NatWest. Although RBS has a decent range of different mortgage products available, including offset mortgages, it does have mixed customer service reviews. | Compare with broker |
Think carefully before securing other debts against your home. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
Who are the best mortgage lenders? A summary
While there is no universal measure of what makes a “best” lender, we believe these lenders stand out from the others.
- Halifax: Best for residential mortgages
- HSBC: Best for remortgaging
- First Direct: Best for online customer service
- Newcastle Building Society: Best for first time buyers
- Leeds Building Society: Best for buy-to-let
- Lloyds Bank: Best for low income or low deposit
- Halifax: Best for retirement
Choosing the “best” lender is more about which one offers what you need and what’s important to you.
However, there are definitely qualities that mortgage-hunters typically look for in a lender – such as low-interest rates, low fees and generous terms. Many consumers also want lenders with a great track record in customer service.
Table: sorted alphabetically
How mortgages work
Whether you’re buying a house, unit or flat, most of us don’t have enough money tucked away to cover the full purchase price. In order to get the full amount needed to buy a property, we need to borrow money through a mortgage.
A mortgage is an arrangement where you borrow money from a lender to buy a property, whether as a home or investment (such as a buy-to-let). The term of a mortgage usually lasts between 25 and 35 years.
In exchange for allowing you to borrow this money, your lender will charge you interest. This can be either a fixed rate mortgage at a certain rate, or a variable rate mortgage.
You’ll usually pay your mortgage off in instalments known as repayments. These are normally required to be made every month.
A mortgage can also be known as a home loan or as home finance.
Largest lenders by market share
| Mortgage lender | Market share |
|---|---|
| Lloyds Banking Group | 15.6% |
| Nationwide Building Society | 14.4% |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | 12.9% |
| Santander UK | 10.4% |
| Barclays | 8.4% |
| HSBC Bank | 6.4% |
| Coventry Building Society | 3.7% |
| Virgin Money | 3.4% |
| Yorkshire Building Society | 2.9% |
| TSB | 2.7% |
These figures are taken from UK Finance (formerly the Council of Mortgage Lenders) and are based on gross lending amounts.
Best mortgage rates 2020
Fixed-rate mortgages continue to be popular in the UK due to the reliability of knowing how much you need to pay each month. However, finding and keeping the best fixed mortgage rate can be problematic. Many deals often start with a low, fixed-rate but often switch into a higher variable rate after a set period of time. This means you can end up paying more than you expected if you end up on the variable rate.
We have created a number of tables, each of which shows a list of mortgage lenders and the rates they have for certain deals with different criteria.
Best fixed-rate mortgage rates for 2020
| Provider name | Rate | APRC | Initial Monthly Payment | Total amount repayable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NatWest | 1.41% | 3.30% | £791.44 | £293,667.48 |
| Royal Bank of Scotland | 1.41% | 3.30% | £791.44 | £293,667.48 |
| NatWest Int Sols | 1.41% | 3.30% | £791.44 | £293,667.48 |
| Halifax | 1.43% | 3.30% | £793.31 | £294,117.00 |
| Barclays Mortgage | 1.43% | 3.30% | £793.31 | £294,402.04 |
Overall representative example
If you borrow £170,000 over a 25-year term at 1.75% p.a. (fixed) for 62 months reverting to 4.74% p.a. (variable) for the remaining term, you would make 62 monthly payments of £700.04 and 238 monthly payments of £912.95. The total payable would be £261,424.58, which includes interest of £90,685 and a product fee of £495. The overall cost for comparison is 3.6% APRC representative.
If you borrow £170,000 over a 25-year term at 1.75% p.a. (fixed) for 62 months reverting to 4.74% p.a. (variable) for the remaining term, you would make 62 monthly payments of £700.04 and 238 monthly payments of £912.95. The total payable would be £261,424.58, which includes interest of £90,685 and a product fee of £495. The overall cost for comparison is 3.6% APRC representative.
| Provider name | Rate | APRC | Initial Monthly Payment | Total amount repayable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HSBC | 1.64% | 3.10% | £813.10 | £289,141.72 |
| West Brom BS | 1.74% | 3.50% | £822.62 | £301,247.20 |
| Platform | 1.74% | 3.70% | £822.62 | £309,538.93 |
| HSBC | 1.84% | 3.10% | £832.22 | £289,574.06 |
| Principality BS | 1.93% | 4.20% | £840.91 | £327,816.60 |
Overall representative example
If you borrow £170,000 over a 25-year term at 1.75% p.a. (fixed) for 62 months reverting to 4.74% p.a. (variable) for the remaining term, you would make 62 monthly payments of £700.04 and 238 monthly payments of £912.95. The total payable would be £261,424.58, which includes interest of £90,685 and a product fee of £495. The overall cost for comparison is 3.6% APRC representative.
If you borrow £170,000 over a 25-year term at 1.75% p.a. (fixed) for 62 months reverting to 4.74% p.a. (variable) for the remaining term, you would make 62 monthly payments of £700.04 and 238 monthly payments of £912.95. The total payable would be £261,424.58, which includes interest of £90,685 and a product fee of £495. The overall cost for comparison is 3.6% APRC representative.
| Provider name | Rate | APRC | Initial Monthly Payment | Total amount repayable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leeds BS | 1.70% | 3.90% | £818.80 | £318,682.41 |
| Leek United BS | 1.70% | 3.90% | £818.80 | £316,300.00 |
| HSBC | 1.71% | 2.90% | £819.76 | £282,758.12 |
| Skipton BS | 1.71% | 3.60% | £819.76 | £306,711.43 |
| Barclays Mortgage | 1.73% | 3.00% | £821.67 | £284,174.80 |
Overall representative example
If you borrow £170,000 over a 25-year term at 1.75% p.a. (fixed) for 62 months reverting to 4.74% p.a. (variable) for the remaining term, you would make 62 monthly payments of £700.04 and 238 monthly payments of £912.95. The total payable would be £261,424.58, which includes interest of £90,685 and a product fee of £495. The overall cost for comparison is 3.6% APRC representative.
If you borrow £170,000 over a 25-year term at 1.75% p.a. (fixed) for 62 months reverting to 4.74% p.a. (variable) for the remaining term, you would make 62 monthly payments of £700.04 and 238 monthly payments of £912.95. The total payable would be £261,424.58, which includes interest of £90,685 and a product fee of £495. The overall cost for comparison is 3.6% APRC representative.
What are the different type of mortgages?
You can boil down UK mortgages into the following types:
Fixed rates
Unlike a variable rate mortgage where repayments move up and down, fixed rate repayments remain unchanged for a set period. This means that for the length of your fixed rate term — usually between one and five years, but sometimes as great as 10 or even 15 years — you’ll know what your repayments will be.
Standard variable rates
A variable rate mortgage is a product which has an interest rate which fluctuates up or down over time as your lender sees fit. Unlike a fixed rate mortgage where the rate is locked in for a fixed term, the interest rate of a variable rate mortgage moves up and down in accordance with market changes.
Tracker mortgages
Tracker mortgages move in line with a nominated interest rate which is usually the Bank of England base rate. The actual mortgage rate you pay will be a set by your lender at an interest rate above or below the base rate. When the base rate goes up and down, your mortgage rate will go up and down by the same amount.Discount rate mortgages
A discount mortgage works by setting a discount on a lender’s standard variable rate (SVR). This means the interest rates can go both up or down in line with the SVR.
Interest only
Standard mortgages have repayments that include both the interest and a small proportion of the capital. If you remove this capital portion from the equation, you can reduce the amount you make in repayments each month. This can be good for some borrowers, including investors and those building a property, but there is an added risk with this type of mortgage as your
amount doesn’t reduce, meaning you will still have to pay the whole capital off at the end of the term.
Offset mortgages
Offset mortgages are linked up to your savings account and can help to reduce your interest payments. Any money deposited into the account offsets interest on your mortgage. For example, if you have a mortgage of £100,000 and savings of £25,000, your mortgage interest is calculated on £75,000 for that month.
This cuts the amount of interest you pay but the mortgage rate is likely to be more expensive than on other deals. You can still access your savings if you need to but the more you offset, the quicker you’ll repay your mortgage.
Capped rate mortgages
This is a type of variable rate mortgage but one with a limit or cap on how high your interest rate can rise. So you can benefit from low interest rates but also enjoy the comfort of knowing that your interest rates will never exceed a certain level.
Cashback mortgages
When you take out this kind of mortgage you also receive some money back. This is normally a percentage of the mortgage.
Flexible mortgages
This option is available on many other types of mortgage and it allows you some flexibility when making repayments. You can choose to pay more when you can afford it, and if you have already overpaid then you can pay less or take a payment holiday. These types of mortgages tend to have higher interest rates than other deals.
95% and 100% mortgages
These types of mortgages are designed for people that either have no deposit or are struggling to save a significant deposit. Loan-to-value rates of 95% or 100% typically incur higher interest rates. Although they were previously widely offered, 100% mortgages fell out of favour after the financial crisis, and now only tend to be offered when a family member is able and willing to provide a guarantee secured against their own residential property.
Buy-to-let mortgages
Buy-to-let mortgages are for people who want to buy a property and rent it out rather than live in it themselves. The amount you can borrow is at least partly based on the amount of rent you expect to receive.
Struggling to understand mortgage jargon?
We know that sometimes it seems as though the financial world operates in a different language altogether, making it hard to understand what you’re getting into when applying for a mortgage. So to help you out, we have created a mortgage A-Z to simplify the terms you’re most likely to come across in your application.
Mortgage fees
1. Upfront fees
- Mortgage arrangement fee. This is the fee that your mortgage lender charges to set up
your mortgage. - Product fee. Many lenders will charge you a product fee which is the cost of choosing a specific mortgage.
- Valuation fee. This is a fee charged by your mortgage lender for them to carry out a valuation of the property you would like a mortgage for.
- Legal fees. A legal professional will need to look over your application to make sure it’s compliant.
- Stamp duty. If your property costs over £125,000 you’ll have to pay stamp duty, which is a certain type of land tax. You’ll usually have to pay this tax as an upfront fee within 30 days of settlement.
your mortgage.2. Ongoing fees
- Repayments. The biggest cost of a mortgage is the regular repayments you have to make on it. Your repayment amount is set by your lender and takes into account the interest rate, how often you’ll be repaying and the length of the loan.
3. Exit fees
- Early repayment charge. If you repay your mortgage early or overpay more than your overpayment allowance some mortgage providers will charge you an early repayment fee.
- Redemption administration fee. This is a fee charged by your lender in order to close your mortgage at the end of the term.
Applying for a mortgage
- Make sure your credit report is in order. You can get a copy of your credit report online. It’s a good idea to make sure your address history is accurate and it also might help to be registered on the Electoral Roll at your main address.
- Ensure your ID and address documents are up to date. Some mortgage lenders will ask you to provide proof of ID or address to satisfy money laundering requirements and these must be the original document, not a copy, and be current and valid.
- Where is your deposit coming from? All lenders will want to see where your deposit is coming from and whether it is a gift or part of your savings. For example, if the money is coming from your savings account then you will be required to show bank statements as evidence.
- Have all your income proof ready. Your lender will want to know how much you earn, so it is a good idea to have your income proof readily available for your application. You may be required to present your latest 3 months payslips/bank statements, or your latest P60. The documents you will need to supply depends on the requirements of the specific lender.
- Check your solicitors are on the lender’s panel. Lenders these days are extra careful about which lawyers you are using, in order to target mortgage fraud. Ask your solicitor if they can work with most lenders, and make sure they are a reputable firm.
- Are you getting a joint mortgage? Think about how strong your relationship is with the other party. Changes to your relationship could make it hard if one party wishes to sell their part of the property.
- What are your plans for the property over the next few years? Match your mortgage to your future plans. For example, avoid taking out a fixed rate mortgage if you plan to sell the property shortly after buying it. Many fixed rate mortgages charge a penalty if you pay them off before the end of the set period which can be expensive.
- Are you eligible for the mortgage? Borrowers generally need to be over 18 years of age. There are other requirements too, but these depend on the lender. Some will want you to have a good credit rating. Others might not allow you to buy inner city apartments. Always read these conditions before applying.
How to find the best mortgage deals of 2020?
- Decide on a mortgage type. First, decide whether a fixed rate mortgage or variable rate mortgage is more suited to your plans and budget. This is also a good time to find out what your credit score is and know what loans are available to you.
- Compare different lenders for different mortgages. Compare what different banks and lenders are offering for your chosen loan type and deposit amount. It is also important to always get more than one quote when looking for a mortgage. This will ensure you get a good mix of options from different types of lenders.
- Ask for a key facts illustration. A lender must give you a mortgage estimate by law. This will show you interest rates, repayment costs and closing costs for your potential mortgage. Some lenders also have a mortgage calculator feature on their website where you can receive a quick quote.
- Repeat until you find a mortgage you want. It’s normal to ask for estimates from more than one lender until you find a mortgage you’re happy with.
Frequently asked questions
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L&C
The UK's largest fee-free mortgage broker & adviser. No hidden costs. L&C compares rates from over 80 lenders.We show offers we can track - that's not every product on the market...yet. Unless we've said otherwise, products are in no particular order. The terms "best", "top", "cheap" (and variations of these) aren't ratings, though we always explain what's great about a product when we highlight it. This is subject to our terms of use. When you make major financial decisions, consider getting independent financial advice. Always consider your own circumstances when you compare products so you get what's right for you.
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