What are the eligibility criteria for a mortgage as a home mover?

Deposit and income are the big drivers. Your credit profile will also have an impact – not so much that you won’t get a mortgage, but around the rate you’re charged.

If you’ve got a nice, clean credit profile, all your payments have been made on time, you don’t have any debts, brilliant. That’s nice and easy. Lenders may accept certain blips – a few missed payments, for example. It might move on to something more formal like a default or a CCJ, even up to repossessions and bankruptcies. Lenders do accept some of those.

The key thing is the timeline. If any of those big things happened more than six years ago, banks don’t even look at it. It’s like your driving licence – you pick up points from time to time but they fall off. Any credit events within the last six years are relevant, and anything within the last two years is very pertinent

Even one missed payment in the last 12 months might even stop you getting the best rates on the market. But it just means we move on to another, more liberal lender. Most people are pleasantly surprised by the ability to get a mortgage even with credit issues.

The actual property that you buy will also have an impact. The best property from a lender’s perspective would be a terraced house in a city or town – because there’s lots of demand. It’s easy to value and if they need to repossess it, it’s easy to get rid of. That’s the bottom line.

The further you get away from that, the harder it can be to get a mortgage or the larger deposit you’ll need. An eco bungalow where you can mow the roof sounds wonderful – but there’s not a lot of demand for that. Banks will probably want a larger deposit.

Mortgage eligibility is about meeting all those criteria around income, deposit, credit and the property. You’ve got all the market to aim for, but if you fall down on one of those elements, there will be less choice. But generally we can find you a solution.

What is porting a mortgage and how does this work?

It’s basically moving your mortgage from one property to another. It’s a very common thing and can be helpful for a couple of reasons. One is if you’re still on a very low interest rate. As we speak in April 2025, we still have clients on interest rates that predate the increases following the pandemic.

If your interest rate is one point something percent, you would want to take that interest rate with you to your new property. Not all mortgages are portable, but most are. It doesn’t necessarily make you immune to the underwriting process.

Even though you already have the mortgage, they will still want to look at your income and expenditure to confirm whether that’s still affordable. So porting is not guaranteed. People can be confused by that – it’s not just a simple phone call to the bank.

Another reason people port is if they are tied into a product, with a penalty attached to redeem the mortgage. It makes sense to move the mortgage across to the new property instead.

If you need to top up, that’s also something a lender can entertain, again based on affordability. It’s pretty common to need a slightly larger mortgage. That will often come with a slightly different rate and product, which can add complexity. You might end up porting your 1.7% rate, with an additional borrowing amount on top at four point something.

It’s up to your mortgage advisor to find a time in the future where you tie the two together to make the admin easier. It’s not something to be frightened of considering. It involves a conversation with the existing lender and the reestablishment of affordability, but as always, a good mortgage advisor is going to walk you through that process.

Can I move house without changing my mortgage?

Matt’s just described in great detail about this, in terms of porting. One interesting nuance is if you’re moving home but the mortgage isn’t changing, you can actually do that without your existing lender formally assessing your income.

We had a client who was a banker and then went self-employed as a photographer. He couldn’t prove his income. But with his move, the mortgage was staying the same and he kept the same percentage of equity in the property. We didn’t increase the mortgage borrowing – in fact, we took it down a touch and the lender agreed to it on that basis.

This falls under a product transfer where, if you’re with a bank and they’ve got a good payment history with you, they don’t need to prove affordability. You’ve got a proven track record.

In that instance, they moved out of London and got a bigger property – it was just cheaper, which is often the case. To explore things like that, talk to us. You would be surprised at how flexible that could be.

Will my new mortgage duration have to be shorter? Could I end up paying more on a mortgage as a home mover?

You can review everything, which is a nice thing. Quite frequently people are moving and they need a slightly longer term, because the mortgage they’re now applying for is bigger than they’ve been used to. By extending the term they could bring those payments down.

That can be done providing you fit the lender’s criteria. Everything is reassessed when you make that new application. It’s all linked to your age, your retirement plans, your income, etc. You can establish whether everything on your previous mortgage is still suitable for where you are now.

Some people decide to decrease their mortgage term. Perhaps there’s more affordability – your income has increased since the last mortgage and you’re now looking to pay less interest and pay it off more quickly.

These are all conversations to have at the time. On something you arranged five or six years ago, you probably need to reassess and make sure it’s still right for you.

What fees will I pay when taking out a mortgage as a home mover?

It’s probably all the same as when you moved last time. The exact fees change in time, particularly stamp duty. We can’t control what that’s going to be. Stamp duty tends to be the biggest cost and is payable dependent upon your situation and the value of the property.

There’ll be legal fees involved. Most lenders offer a free survey, but you might want to conduct a survey at your own cost – typically around 0.1% of the property price.

Sometimes lenders charge arrangement fees, and it’s down to the specifics of your situation on what works. If you’re selling your property there will be agents’ fees. If you’re retaining it those won’t apply, but be mindful of other costs you’ll incur.

What if I have bad credit as a home mover? How will this affect the process?

If your credit situation was bad when you last took out a mortgage on your property, but the situation has since improved, that tends to be positive. You might still be classed as having adverse credit, but you may have access to better rates last time round.

On the flip side, if things have taken a turn for the worse, we may have to look at different lenders that specialise potentially in that type of applicant.

Lately, however, we’ve seen high street lenders take more of a view on adverse credit.

Something that was a one-off or out of character isn’t the deal breaker that it once was. Just be really open with your advisor and talk about the situation at hand.

There’s an opportunity to reassess everything on today’s terms. If you’re potentially considering porting, that’s another conversation to have. That lender may take a more favourable view because they’ve got a track record with you – unlike a brand new lender.

How can a mortgage broker help home movers?

It’s all about the advice. When you’re with a bank, you might assume that they know you so going back to them is nice and easy. But whenever you move, you’re reassessed regardless. You can be treated as a new borrower, even if you’re with that bank already.

That’s before we even look at what products they are offering, rates and fees. Porting, particularly, can get complicated if you’ve got products ending on different days, and you need to negotiate top up lending.

We can answer all your questions – What’s the market doing? Should you go for a fixed rate or variable? How long should you fix for? We want to keep your costs down as much as possible so you can get the mortgage paid off.

On a practical level, we do get exclusive rates and access to lenders you wouldn’t necessarily get yourself. It’s perverse, but sometimes it’s cheaper to go through a broker, even with your existing bank, than go directly yourself.

The reason is that 80% to 90% of all mortgages come from brokers these days, and lenders are very happy to outsource the advice element to us. Because we distribute so many mortgages, we simply get better rates.

But the big thing is that we work for you. We want to help you move onto your new property as smoothly as possible. Let’s take that stress away from you and get you the best possible outcome.

YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP WITH YOUR MORTGAGE REPAYMENTS.

For specialist tax advice, please refer to an accountant or tax specialist.