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How Much Deposit Do I Need?: As a general rule of thumb, you need to make a deposit of about 5 – 10% of the total amount you are borrowing.
How Does A Joint Mortgage Work?: When you decide to get a mortgage with another person – both your incomes can be taken into account. The general rule is that you can borrow three times the first income plus half of the second income, or two-and-a-half times the joint income.
Do I Need a Guarantor?: If your lender is concerned about your ability to meet your mortgage commitments, they may ask you to provide a Guarantor.
What Are Redemption Penalties?: Redemption penalties are your lender’s way of getting extra money out of you when you decide to cancel your mortgage agreement early.
What Happens If I Have Bank Defaults?: If you have failed to meet payments on a credit agreement such as secured loans, unsecured/personal loans, credit cards, store cards or car finances etc, or you have failed to comply with your lender’s requirements, you will be described as having 'defaulted'.

How long are mortgages usually for?

As with any loan, you can choose to take your mortgage out for any amount of time – however the norm is 25 years.

The longest term you can take a mortgage out over is generally 35 years. 15 or 20 year mortgages are also quite common.

It’s a good idea to take out as short a mortgage term as possible purely because you will pay a lot less in interest. The shorter the term the higher the monthly repayments, however the amount you actually have to pay back will be greatly reduced. Basically you have to choose a mortgage term that is right for you, and if you find that you could pay more you can always remortgage for a shorter term, or if you have a flexible mortgage you can simply pay more off your mortgage and finish the mortgage early. With a flexible or current account mortgage there will be no redemption penalties for paying off early.