Financial Literacy: What is a Mortgage? How do mortgages work?

Financial Literacy posts are designed to be more than just a simple definition, they are aimed at putting financial concepts into easily understandable terms and to give an example or two to demonstrate the answers.

Today we ask: What is a Mortgage?

By definition a mortgage is pledging a property to a lender as security in return for a mortgage loan. While a mortgage is not an actual debt it is evidence of a debt and is the legal instrument used to transfer an interest in land from an owner to a lender on condition that it will be given back to the owner once the terms of the mortgage have been satisfied.

I am a big fan of pictures so we shall use a few to show what happens.

Let’s take the example of ‘Joe’ who wants to buy a house. He must save up a deposit as loans require ‘equity’ it gives the bank some security in the sense that it means the person is vested in the purchase (they stand to lose …

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Average loan life set to rise as we witness the death of the ‘Switcher’ mortgage.

For almost the last decade we saw a market develop where customers were king, and where banks competed for their business, this was an era where ‘refinancing’, ‘switching’, and ‘re-mortgaging’ became a common occurrence, in the 1990’s the re-mortgage market was very small in comparison to where it went from 2000 onwards. The reason for the upsurge was that loyalty doesn’t pay when it comes to the Irish banks, they were giving new borrowers better rates and charging existing borrowers more, the choice of fixed rates for an existing borrower were always more expensive than for the person who had jumped ship elsewhere and come to a bank as a fresh client.

Today we are seeing something that has long been unfamiliar, banks are intentionally being uncompetitive, pushing rates to the point where they are not doing any marginal lending and where their average loan is reaching higher and higher above the ECB currently several banks have broken the 6% mark meaning that rates are now at the highest they have been in almost a decade.

This means that lenders …

Read More →

Average loan life set to rise as we witness the death of the 'Switcher' mortgage.

For almost the last decade we saw a market develop where customers were king, and where banks competed for their business, this was an era where ‘refinancing’, ‘switching’, and ‘re-mortgaging’ became a common occurrence, in the 1990’s the re-mortgage market was very small in comparison to where it went from 2000 onwards. The reason for the upsurge was that loyalty doesn’t pay when it comes to the Irish banks, they were giving new borrowers better rates and charging existing borrowers more, the choice of fixed rates for an existing borrower were always more expensive than for the person who had jumped ship elsewhere and come to a bank as a fresh client.

Today we are seeing something that has long been unfamiliar, banks are intentionally being uncompetitive, pushing rates to the point where they are not doing any marginal lending and where their average loan is reaching higher and higher above the ECB currently several banks have broken the 6% mark meaning that rates are now at the highest they have been in almost a decade.

This means that lenders …

Read More →

The best mortgage rates & How to get them.

What are the best mortgage rates? Good question. The best rates or the best ‘rate’ are kind of a subjective thing because they depend on your personal situation.

For instance, the best ‘rate’ at the moment might be the Bank of Scotland Tracker at 4.55% but that may as well be pie in the sky if you are a first time buyer. Why? Simple, its because there is an LTV restriction on that of 50%. Which means that if you are buying a house for €400,000 you can get this rate only if your mortgage is €200,000 or less.

So What’s the point in communicating to a First Time Buyer the ‘best mortgage rate’ if its one that they are not really likely to qualify for? Naturally a broker will jump at this rate on behalf of their client if they are anywhere near qualifying for it however the percentage of First Time Buyers putting down a 50% deposit is surely quite small.

So in answer to the question I always here of ‘What is the best rate’ or ‘what …

Read More →

The best mortgage rates & How to get them.

What are the best mortgage rates? Good question. The best rates or the best ‘rate’ are kind of a subjective thing because they depend on your personal situation.

For instance, the best ‘rate’ at the moment might be the Bank of Scotland Tracker at 4.55% but that may as well be pie in the sky if you are a first time buyer. Why? Simple, its because there is an LTV restriction on that of 50%. Which means that if you are buying a house for €400,000 you can get this rate only if your mortgage is €200,000 or less.

So What’s the point in communicating to a First Time Buyer the ‘best mortgage rate’ if its one that they are not really likely to qualify for? Naturally a broker will jump at this rate on behalf of their client if they are anywhere near qualifying for it however the percentage of First Time Buyers putting down a 50% deposit is surely quite small.

So in answer to the question I always here of ‘What is the best rate’ or ‘what …

Read More →
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