There are many different kinds of mortgage to choose from. All of them have varying features and benefits. Some of the more common types include:

• Standard variable rate (SVR) mortgages
• Fixed interest rate mortgages
• Tracker rate mortgages

A: This depends on a number of factors. Still, Borrowers are typically prepared to lend three times your salary or two-and-a-half times a joint salary.

They will also consider things such as any other source of income from a second job that you’ll prove to them, bonuses, tax credits, and maintenance payments and since lending rules were tightened, they also increasingly investigate borrowers’ ability to repay.

This means looking at your credit history and scoring it, just as well as on your monthly outgoings, examining not just how much you spend but what you spend it on, to help assess your ability to manage should interest rates rise.

Some providers will now offer four-and-a-half times your annual income – but the more you borrow in relation to your income, the more likely you are to fail MMR checks and to have your application to be declined.

A: This will depend on your financial standing, the price of the property and your credit history…

Whilst ‘100% mortgages’ – where you can borrow 100% of the property’s value – have now almost entirely disappeared, it’s still possible to get a 95% mortgage, where you pay a deposit of 5% of the property’s value.

But many Borrowers ask for a 10% deposit or more, and many tend to save the best rates for borrowers with a deposit of 25%.