How to apply for a mortgage

Applying for a mortgage means asking a lender to check your finances, value the property you want to buy, and commit in writing to lending you a set amount on set terms. You can do this by approaching a lender directly or by going through a mortgage broker, and the process is broadly the same either way: you provide documents, the lender runs credit and affordability checks, the property is valued, and, if all goes well, you receive a mortgage offer, generally within four weeks of applying¹.

Before any of that, most people get a sense of how much a lender might be prepared to lend them. Most lenders will tell you how much money they are willing to lend you, called a mortgage or agreement in principle, and this can be a useful marker while you house hunt, though it is not a guarantee of a mortgage². The rate you eventually pay depends on the deal you choose: the average two-year fixed mortgage rate was 4.92% in August 2026, up 0.82 percentage points on a year ago³.

Applying direct to a lender or through a mortgage broker

There are two routes into a mortgage application. You can approach a mortgage lender directly, or you can go via a mortgage broker who deals with lenders on your behalf¹. The route you choose changes who does the legwork, which deals you can see, and in some cases whether you can apply at all.

Going direct means dealing with one lender at a time. This suits people who have a straightforward situation, a clean credit record and a clear idea of which lender they want. The lender will only talk to you about its own products, so comparing the market means repeating the exercise elsewhere, and each full application typically involves a credit check.

A broker searches across a range of lenders and can advise on which deal fits your circumstances. This matters because, as independent guidance on interest-only mortgages notes, some deals are only available through brokers⁷. Some lenders take this further: Dudley Building Society, for example, states that to apply for a mortgage with it you need to speak to a qualified mortgage broker who can guide you through the process⁸. Lenders like these are described in more detail in broker-only mortgage lenders.

Online-only brokers are a growing middle route. In most cases, you will not need to pay for the advice you receive from online mortgage brokers, and some of these services claim that you can find and apply for a mortgage in just 15 minutes, which is potentially much faster than the traditional route⁹. A claim about speed is the broker's own, not an independent measurement, so treat it as what the service says about itself rather than a guarantee.

The trade-offs sit side by side. Direct applications give you one lender's view and no advice; brokers give you a wider search and advice, but the advice is only as good as the broker and the range of lenders they cover. The dedicated guide to mortgage advice: brokers, advisers and applying direct sets out the differences, including which type of broker can recommend which lenders, in more depth.

What lenders check before they lend

A mortgage is a large loan secured on a home, so a lender's checks are thorough. All lenders must check your creditworthiness and satisfy themselves that you can afford the repayments before lending you money⁵. That duty is not a formality: it is the core of the decision, and it applies to every regulated mortgage lender.

The checks fall into three broad areas. A lender will base your application on several things including your credit file, the value of your house, and how much you want to borrow¹⁰. The credit file shows how you have handled borrowing in the past; the property value matters because it sets the loan to value, the size of the loan against what the home is worth; and the amount you want to borrow is tested against your income and outgoings.

Affordability checking is the most detailed part. Lenders look at your income and your committed spending to judge whether the repayments are sustainable, and guidance on lending rights notes that lenders should take these same steps when they extend a credit agreement or refinance an agreement¹¹. In practice this means the checks are repeated not just at application but whenever you borrow more or restructure the loan.

How much you can borrow is usually expressed as a multiple of income. Mortgage lenders commonly lend up to four-and-a-half times your salary, though some borrowers may be offered up to six times their salary¹². The multiple is not the whole decision: the lender also stress-tests whether you could keep up payments if costs rose. How much can I borrow for a mortgage? covers this in detail.

If you apply jointly, both of you are checked. Lenders will run a credit check on each applicant before granting a mortgage, and if one party has a poor credit score, it could impact the lender's decision¹³. That can come as a surprise to couples where one person's record is strong and the other's is not: the weaker file drags the application, not the average of the two.

Existing borrowers are not exempt. When you port a mortgage to a new property you have to reapply for the deal, and the lender will use its current lending criteria to decide whether to let you port; your lender will run an affordability check based on current lending criteria¹⁴. So a borrower who passed the checks years ago is reassessed against today's rules, which is worth bearing in mind before committing to a move. See porting a mortgage when you move home.

Documents to have ready before you apply

Gathering documents before you apply is the single easiest way to speed the process up, because the lender cannot finish its checks without them. The core set is proof of ID, details of your employment, and up to six months of bank statements¹.

Proof of identity means either your passport or photo driving licence¹⁵. Proof of address is a separate requirement: you will need two documents as proof of address, which can be a bank statement, utility bill, council tax bill or credit card statement, dated within the last three months¹. Note the three-month rule: an older bill that has sat in a drawer since you moved will not do.

If you are self-employed, the income evidence is heavier. You will need details of your tax assessments and your accounts from the last three years, including the current tax year¹. Lenders want to see a track record of earnings because there is no employer to confirm your income, which is one reason self-employed applications can take longer. Mortgages for self-employed people covers the specifics.

A practical list to work through:

• Passport or photo driving licence for proof of identity¹⁵
• Two documents as proof of address, dated within the last three months¹
• Details of your employment¹
• Up to six months of bank statements¹
• If self-employed: tax assessments and accounts from the last three years, including the current tax year¹

Agreement in principle: a statement of intent, not an offer

An agreement in principle, also known as a decision in principle, a mortgage promise or a mortgage in principle, is a statement from a lender that says how much they are willing to lend you, used to show that you can afford the home you want to purchase⁴. Most lenders will tell you how much money they are willing to lend you under this kind of agreement², and in Scotland the same statement is described as a lender's statement of how much it is willing to lend, used to show you can afford the purchase¹⁶.

What it is not matters just as much. An agreement in principle is not a mortgage offer or an official confirmation that you have a mortgage⁴. It is a lender's indication based on the information you have given and the checks it has run so far, and the full application can still change the answer if something in your finances or the property does not hold up.

You do not have to get one. You don't have to get an agreement in principle, but it can sometimes help when you're house-hunting⁴. The point where it tends to matter is the offer on a property: estate agents will often want to ensure that you will be able to get a mortgage on a property before you put in an offer, so it can be helpful to have an agreement by this point⁴. Sellers and their agents take an offer more seriously when there is evidence behind it.

There is a cost to applying for one carelessly. Getting a decision in principle usually involves a credit check, so guidance advises only doing this when formally applying for the mortgage, or if an estate agent asks for one to check you're a credible buyer¹⁵. The full guide is at mortgage in principle (decision in principle).

From full application to mortgage offer

The full application is where the lender commits resources to deciding. It will run its credit and affordability checks in full, and it will arrange for the property to be valued, since the loan is secured on the home. The mortgage offer generally arrives within four weeks of applying¹⁵. Independent guidance on the application process gives the same timescale, with the offer expected within four weeks of applying¹.

The valuation is the lender's own check on what the property is worth, and it is separate from any survey you commission for your own peace of mind. The pattern is the same across secured lending: affordability checks will be carried out and the property will be valued before a loan is either approved or rejected¹⁷. Mortgage valuations and surveys explains the difference between the two.

Some circumstances add requirements. With a let-to-buy mortgage, where you rent out your current home to buy a new one, the lender will usually request proof that you're buying a new home at the same time as switching your mortgage, usually evidenced by a copy of your mortgage offer for your new home¹⁸. Applications with moving parts like this take longer than a straightforward purchase.

Alongside the mortgage itself, buying a home brings one-off costs. As part of the process of buying a house or flat you may also need to pay a solicitor, an independent surveyor, a mortgage arrangement fee, a Land Registry fee and Stamp Duty¹⁹. These are separate from the application itself, but they are part of what you need to budget for, and mortgage fees and charges covers the mortgage-related ones.

Once the checks are done and the lender is satisfied, it issues a formal mortgage offer. This document sets out exactly what it will lend, on what rate and terms, and it is the point at which the commitment becomes real. From there the legal work of conveyancing completes the purchase.

Average fixed mortgage rates in 2025 and 2026

The rate you are offered depends on your circumstances, but official statistics give a picture of where the market has been. The average two-year fixed mortgage rate was 4.92% in August 2026, up 0.82 percentage points on a year ago³. For two-year 90% loan-to-value mortgages, the average rate in July 2026 was 5.16%²⁰.

The path to those figures has not been smooth. In April 2025, an average 2-year 75% loan-to-value mortgage offered a rate of 4.43%, down from 4.53% in March²¹. By July 2025, the average two and five-year fixes sat at 5.03% and 5.01% respectively²². Since September 2025, the average rate for two-year fixes has dipped below the average for five-year deals²³, a reversal of the long-standing pattern where five-year fixes were cheaper.

More recently, rates have edged up again. Five-year fixes have risen a little more than two-year deals, with increases of around 0.1 percentage points since the start of August²⁴. The figures come from different sources measuring slightly different things: some track all fixes, some track specific loan-to-value bands, and the months differ. What they agree on is the broad picture, that average fixed rates have been moving modestly upwards across 2025 and 2026, with the most recent pressure in that direction.

Borrowers most commonly take out two-year or five-year fixed-rate mortgages, although three, seven, ten, and even fifteen year fixed terms are available¹³. The longer the fix, the longer the certainty, but the more you give up if rates fall and you want to switch, and early repayment charges usually apply if you leave during the fixed period.

Fixed, discounted or variable: how each rate behaves

The rate types on the market fall into four main groups: fixed rates, tracker rates, discount variable rates, and standard variable rates²⁵. Each behaves differently when the Bank of England changes Bank Rate, and raising or lowering Bank Rate mainly affects people with variable mortgages²⁶. That single fact explains most of the choice.

A fixed rate holds your payments steady for a set period, whatever happens to Bank Rate or to your lender's own pricing. At the end of your fixed period, you'll need to remortgage; if you don't, you'll be moved to your lender's standard variable rate (SVR), which is usually much more expensive¹³. The fix is a contract for a period, not for the life of the loan.

A tracker rate follows an external rate, typically Bank Rate, up and down. Your payments move when the rate it tracks moves, by a set amount, on a set date. There is no cap in the ordinary case: if the tracked rate rises, your payment rises with it.

A discounted rate is a variable-rate mortgage, meaning the amount you pay could change from month to month²⁷. Your discounted interest rate tracks your lender's SVR, which can change by any amount and at any time, meaning your monthly repayments might not be the same each month²⁷. The discount is a margin below the lender's own rate, not a link to anything outside the lender's control, so the lender can move the goalposts by moving the SVR.

The standard variable rate is the default your lender moves you to when a deal ends. Lenders set their own rates, so they are not all the same²⁸, and as the name suggests, your mortgage payments can go up or down²⁸.

Which tends to suit whom is a matter of circumstance rather than ranking. A fix suits someone whose budget cannot absorb a rise; a tracker suits someone comfortable with movement who wants to benefit quickly from falls; a discount offers a lower starting payment in exchange for the lender's freedom to reprice. Interest-only mortgages, a separate choice about how you repay, are available with fixed and variable rates⁷, and repayment vs interest-only covers that distinction.

The standard variable rate: what happens when your deal ends

Every initial deal has an end date, and what happens next is decided by whether you act. A standard variable rate mortgage is what you'll be transferred onto when a fixed, tracker or discount deal comes to an end²⁹. You will usually be moved to a standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage if you do nothing²⁸.

The SVR is a variable-rate mortgage, meaning the total amount that you pay could change each month²⁹. Because lenders set their own rates and they are not all the same²⁸, the SVR you land on depends entirely on which lender you are with, and it is usually much more expensive than the deal it replaces¹³.

The practical defence is timing. You can usually secure a new mortgage six months before the end of your current one²³. That window means a borrower whose fix ends in the spring can have a new deal lined up before the old one lapses, rather than drifting onto the SVR and paying it while arranging a replacement. How far ahead can you lock in a new rate? covers how the window works.

The choice at the end of a deal is between remortgaging to a new lender, switching to a new deal with your existing lender (a product transfer), or doing nothing and taking the SVR. Remortgaging explained and product transfers set out the first two options, and what to do when your fixed rate ends walks through the decision.

If your application is turned down

A refusal is not the end of the road. For applicants with missed payments, reduced payments, County Court judgments and Decrees on their credit file, this does not mean that you cannot get a mortgage, but you may have to pay more in interest and fees²⁸. The reason is risk pricing: a lender that accepts a file with past problems prices the extra risk into the deal.

What to do next depends on why you were refused. If it was affordability, the options include borrowing less, a longer term, or a bigger deposit, which lowers the loan to value. If it was credit history, the file itself is the place to start: credit scores and credit reports explains how to check what lenders see, and getting a mortgage with bad credit covers which problems matter most and how they age. Specialist mortgage lenders exist specifically to lend where mainstream lenders will not.

Be careful about the instinct to fire off more applications. Making several mortgage applications very close together could significantly damage your credit score¹⁵, so a refusal followed by a flurry of further applications can make the position worse rather than better. A broker can often identify which lenders are likely to accept your profile before any application is made.

In Scotland there is a further option for homeowners in serious difficulty. Under the Mortgage to Rent scheme, you can apply to join even if you are in negative equity, though your application will not be accepted unless you have taken independent advice, for example from a Citizens Advice Bureau, a money adviser or a council money advice centre³¹. That scheme is about keeping a home rather than buying one, but it shows that a refused application is rarely the only door.

If a lender or broker treats you unfairly

The law says mortgage lenders must treat you fairly and take your circumstances into account³². That duty runs through the whole relationship, from the affordability checks at application to how arrears are handled years later, and it is the standard against which a complaint is judged.

The complaint route has a set order. First talk to the lender or broker: they need to have the chance to put things right³³. If that does not resolve it, make a formal complaint to the firm. If you are not satisfied with their response, or they don't get back to you within eight weeks, you can bring your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service³⁴, which is free to use.

The ombudsman's scope is broad. It can look at complaints about advice you received from a financial business, complaints about mortgage arrears and charges, not being able to change or move your mortgage or take a payment holiday, and complaints about repossession before possession takes place or after it has happened³⁵. On unaffordable or irresponsible lending, its approach usually means looking at whether your lender completed reasonable and proportionate checks before you took out the loan, or whether it has treated you unreasonably or unfairly in some way³⁶.

Specific grounds people successfully complain about include lenders that have applied unfair charges to an account, such as arrears fees, legal costs and field agent visit fees; refused a concession such as a temporary switch to interest-only or a term extension; unfairly tried to repossess; or harassed a borrower about arrears³⁷. Where a complaint goes through a credit broker, the broker must forward the complaint to the lender and inform the consumer that it has done so³⁸, so a complaint made to a broker does not get lost.

Free, impartial help is available at each stage. Complaining to the Financial Ombudsman about your mortgage sets out the process in detail, mortgage rules, your rights and protection covers the duties lenders owe you, and debt charities such as StepChange offer free advice on the underlying money problems. If a creditor is not treating you fairly or is acting outside the law, that is itself grounds for a complaint³⁹.