First time buyers

Look at your finances

A good first step when you’re thinking of buying your first home is to look at the costs that you’d need to pay. You can get a good idea of the size of mortgage you would need by thinking about areas you would like to live and type of property you’re thinking of purchasing.

The size of your mortgage is also determined by your deposit – which is the amount you are contributing to the house purchase. Typically, the bigger the deposit, the better mortgage deal you will be able to get and therefore the lower your monthly repayments would be. Whilst typically the best mortgages for first time buyers are achieved by having a good deposit you can still get a mortgage with a 5% or 10% deposit.

Work out your mortgage costs

When you’re working out how much a mortgage might cost you, our mortgage calculators are a great place to start.

A borrowing calculator will provide you with an estimate of how much we would lend to you, using details about your income and monthly outgoings. Once you have a borrowing figure and a deposit, you can use our repayment calculator to get an idea of what the monthly repayments would be. You should view this figure against your other monthly outgoings like household bills, council tax etc. to check that the mortgage is affordable.

Get a lending decision

Getting a lending decision (also called the ‘Approval in Principle’ or ‘AIP’) allows us as a lender to determine whether or not we would be able to lend to you and how much we would be able to lend. You can obtain a lending decision online in just 10 minutes or if you’d prefer to get some advice you can call us or speak to a mortgage advisor in branch.

An AIP is valid for 30 days so if you don’t already have a new property in mind, you have an opportunity to come back to your full application later after you’ve had an offer accepted. You may find that having a successful AIP from a lender is useful when speaking to estate agents about new properties as it shows that you have the finances in place to purchase a new home.

Start researching mortgage deals

So you’ve got a lending decision and have found a home… what next? It’s time to start looking at available first time buyer mortgage deals to finds the best possible option for you.

You can use our mortgage search tool at the top of the page to find a mortgage deal from our current First Time Buyer range – all you need to do is enter some details about your property price, deposit and mortgage term.

Alternatively, you can find out more about the kinds of mortgage we offer on our Fixed rate mortgage and Offset mortgage pages.  Also, some of our mortgage deals include incentives for First Time Buyers.

Complete your full application

If you’re now ready to proceed, you’ll need to complete a full mortgage application. This is where we’ll ask for the details of your new property and you’ll be able to select a mortgage deal from our range.

You can do your application online, which is offered without advice. However it’s easy to speak to someone if you need to – either call us on 0345 166 9510 or arrange an appointment in branch.

Mortgage offer, exchange and completion

Our mortgage underwriters will begin to assess you mortgage within around 48 hours of you submitting your application.

Offer – this is a formal document which tells you that your loan has been agreed and sets out the terms of your mortgage.

Exchange of contracts – the exchange of contracts is the point in the conveyancing process when seller and buyer have agreed the terms of the sale of the property and commit to complete on that deal (usually done via solicitors).

Completion – the completion date is the date of the legal transfer of the new property into your name and also when the balance of the purchase price is paid to the seller. Once this has been agreed with the seller and their solicitor, you are ready to move in!