A mortgage is a loan secured against a property. The lender (usually a bank or building society) gives you most of the purchase price, and you pay them back in monthly instalments over a term of 20–35 years. If you stop paying, the lender can repossess the property. That's what "secured" means.

The part you pay upfront yourself is your deposit. Most lenders require at least 5% of the property's value — so on a £250,000 home, that's £12,500. The remaining £237,500 is the mortgage.

Lenders typically offer 4 to 4.5 times your annual gross income. On a £40,000 salary, that's £160,000–£180,000. Add your deposit to that figure to get your total buying budget. If you're buying with a partner, both incomes are usually combined.

Lenders also run affordability checks beyond the income multiple. They'll look at your outgoings, debts, and whether you could still afford repayments if interest rates rose by 3%. The income multiple is the headline figure; affordability is the real test.

Your monthly payment depends on three things: how much you borrowed, the interest rate, and the term length. A £200,000 mortgage at 3.9% over 25 years costs around £1,040/month. Extend to 30 years and it drops to about £940/month, though you pay significantly more interest overall.

Most first-time buyers choose a fixed-rate mortgage for 2 or 5 years. Your rate and monthly payment stay the same for that period regardless of what happens to the Bank of England base rate. After the fixed period, you move to the lender's standard variable rate (usually higher) or remortgage to a new deal.

A variable-rate mortgage tracks the base rate, so payments can go up or down. Historically, most buyers fix for predictability. Right now most first-time buyers are fixing for 2–5 years.

Run Evir's questionnaire to see your borrowing capacity based on your income and savings. Then use the what-if calculator on your result screen to model different prices, deposits, and terms.

The Lifetime ISA (LISA) is the most underused tool available to UK first-time buyers. For every £4 you save, the government adds £1. Automatically. Save £4,000 in a year, get £1,000 free. That's a 25% return before a single penny of interest.

You must be aged 18–39 when you open the account. You must be a first-time buyer. The property must cost £450,000 or less. You must have had the account open for at least 12 months before you use it to buy. That last point matters. Open one as early as possible, even if you can only put £1 in initially.

The annual limit is £4,000, which works out at £333/month. The 25% bonus is applied monthly, so you see it building up. There's no minimum. You can contribute any amount up to the limit in a given tax year.

If you withdraw before buying your first home (and before age 60), you'll pay a 25% government penalty on the whole withdrawal, which effectively means losing the bonus plus a small amount of your own money. Only use a LISA for its intended purpose: first home purchase or retirement.

Moneybox and Nutmeg are the most popular platforms for first-time buyers. Both offer stocks-and-shares LISAs which can grow faster than a cash LISA over a multi-year saving period, though with more volatility. If you're buying within 2–3 years, a cash LISA (available from several banks) carries less risk. Compare your options, open one today, and set up a monthly standing order.

If you're eligible and don't have a LISA yet, this is probably the highest-impact action you can take right now. Open one before the end of the current tax year so your first year's bonus starts accumulating.

Shared Ownership lets you buy a percentage of a home, usually between 10% and 75%, and pay subsidised rent to a housing association on the share you don't own. You only need a deposit on the share you're buying, which makes it significantly more accessible than a standard purchase.

You pay rent to the housing association on the portion you don't own. The rent is typically set at around 2.75–3% of the unsold share per year. On a £320,000 property where you own 25%, the unsold share is worth £240,000, so annual rent is roughly £6,600–£7,200, or around £550–£600/month.

Add your mortgage payment on top of that and the total monthly cost is often comparable to renting. But unlike renting, part of each payment builds equity.

You can increase your ownership share over time in a process called staircasing. Each time you buy more, your mortgage payments go up slightly and your rent goes down. Most schemes allow you to staircase up to 100%, at which point you own the property outright and pay no rent.

Shared Ownership properties are always leasehold, which means ongoing service charges and ground rent. These can be substantial. £200–£400/month is not unusual on new-build flats. You'll also typically need the housing association's permission to make significant changes to the property.

Shared Ownership works best when the area you want to live in is genuinely out of reach on the open market, and you have enough income to comfortably cover both a mortgage and rent. It's not a good fit if service charges would stretch your budget, or if you want the freedom to renovate.

Household income must be below £80,000 (£90,000 in London). You must be a first-time buyer, or previously owned a home but can no longer afford to buy on the open market. New-build Shared Ownership is prioritised for local connection to the area.

A mortgage in principle (also called an Agreement in Principle, or AIP) is a written statement from a lender indicating they'd be willing to lend you a specific amount, based on a quick review of your income and a soft credit check. It is not a formal offer or guarantee, but it is a meaningful signal.

Most lenders run a soft credit check for an AIP, which doesn't leave a visible mark on your credit file and won't affect your score. When you make a full mortgage application, they run a hard check, which is visible to other lenders for 12 months. Multiple hard checks in a short period can affect your creditworthiness, so don't apply to lots of lenders speculatively.

Don't rush into getting an AIP the moment you start thinking about buying. Most AIPs are valid for 60–90 days. Get one when you're genuinely ready to make offers: deposit close to ready, credit file clean, viewings started.

Getting one too early, months before you're ready to buy, means it may expire before you're in a position to use it and you'll have to go through the process again.

The fastest route is through a whole-of-market mortgage broker like Habito or London & Country. They compare hundreds of deals and apply to the most likely lender on your behalf. The process typically takes 15–30 minutes and most decisions come back within 24 hours. It's free. The broker is paid by the lender when you complete.

An AIP doesn't account for the specific property you want to buy. The lender will value the property separately as part of the full application. It also doesn't reflect everything in your credit history — a full application can occasionally reveal issues the initial check missed.

Yes, in many parts of the UK. On a £28,000 salary, a typical lender will offer around £119,000–£126,000 (4.25–4.5× income). Add a 10% deposit of £13,000 and your total budget is roughly £132,000–£139,000. That buys a flat or smaller terraced house in large parts of the North, Midlands, Wales, and Scotland.

On £28,000 alone, you can buy outright (with a standard deposit) in parts of the North East: Sunderland, Middlesbrough, Hull. The average first-time buyer property in those areas sits around £130,000–£155,000. It's tight, but possible without schemes or a second income.

You'll also find pockets of affordability in South Wales, parts of the West Midlands, and coastal towns in Lancashire and Yorkshire where prices haven't risen as sharply.

A bigger deposit is the most direct lever. Saving £20,000 instead of £13,000 increases your buying power and typically moves you into a better interest rate tier. Borrowing at 85% LTV rather than 90% saves meaningfully over the life of the mortgage.

A Lifetime ISA changes the timeline. On £28,000, saving £333/month is genuinely hard. But even saving £150/month into a LISA earns £45/month free from the government. Over two years, that's £1,080 of bonus on top of £3,600 of your own savings.

Buying with a partner doubles the income calculation. Two incomes of £28,000 each gives a joint mortgage capacity of £238,000–£252,000. Combined with a shared deposit, most of the UK market becomes accessible.

Shared Ownership opens up markets that would otherwise be out of reach. On £28,000 you're likely eligible (income limit is £80,000). A 25% share of a £220,000 home costs £55,000, so a 5% deposit is just £2,750. Your mortgage on the share is around £270/month at current rates, plus rent of roughly £300/month on the unsold portion. Total housing cost: around £570/month.

Run Evir with your numbers. Select your target area and Evir will show you exactly where you stand: buying power vs. the local market, deposit gap, and timeline.

The honest answer: 2–7 years for most first-time buyers, depending on where you want to buy, how much you earn, and how much you can realistically save each month. The range is wide because the inputs vary dramatically.

These assume a 5% deposit, a £35,000 household income, and saving £400/month with a LISA, which earns roughly £100/month in government bonus.

North East, Scotland: Average first-time buyer price around £140,000–£165,000. Deposit needed: £7,000–£8,250. Timeline at £500/month effective: 14–17 months.

Midlands, Yorkshire, North West: Average first-time buyer price around £175,000–£220,000. Deposit needed: £8,750–£11,000. Timeline: 17–22 months.

South East (excluding London): Average around £280,000–£340,000. Deposit needed: £14,000–£17,000. Timeline: 28–34 months.

London: Average around £420,000–£500,000. Deposit needed: £21,000–£25,000. Timeline: 42–50 months. Many London buyers use the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme or rely on dual incomes.

Saving rate matters more than income. Two people on £35,000 who save £300/month vs £600/month will have very different timelines. Doubling your saving rate roughly halves your deposit timeline. Finding an extra £100/month is meaningfully more impactful than a small pay rise.

A 10% deposit isn't twice as hard as 5%. It's just a bit more on top of what you already need. But a 10% deposit gets you a better interest rate that could save £50–£100/month for decades. At some point the maths shifts from "save the minimum" to "save a bit more now and pay less forever."

On a target deposit of £15,000, without a LISA you save £15,000 yourself. With a LISA at maximum contribution (£4,000/year = £1,000 bonus), after two tax years you've received £2,000 in bonuses, reducing your effective saving to £13,000. That's roughly 4–5 months off your timeline at typical saving rates, for doing nothing except choosing the right account.

It depends entirely on your situation. Shared Ownership is a genuine solution for some buyers and a bad deal for others. Here's the honest case on both sides.

If you live in an area where property prices are significantly beyond your borrowing capacity, Shared Ownership can be the only realistic path to ownership without waiting a decade. Paying rent on the unsold share is cheaper than market rent on a comparable property, and part of your monthly payment builds equity rather than disappearing entirely.

If your deposit is small but your income is stable and growing, the staircasing structure lets you gradually increase ownership as your financial position improves. Some buyers start at 25%, staircase to 50% within five years, and own outright within fifteen. That's a legitimate route to full ownership.

Service charges are the biggest hidden cost. New-build flats in particular can carry service charges of £3,000–£5,000 per year. When you add that to your mortgage and rent, total monthly housing costs can exceed what you'd pay to buy outright, or even to rent privately.

Selling can be complicated. The housing association typically has the right to find a buyer first (usually for 8 weeks) before you can sell on the open market. This can slow down a sale significantly. And when you do sell, you can only sell the percentage you own, which limits your pool of buyers.

Restrictions on the property can also grate over time. Permission for pets, subletting, and even some renovations often requires housing association approval. You own part of the home, but you don't have full control over it.

Staircasing sounds simple: just buy more shares as you go. But each time you staircase, you're buying at the current market value, not the value when you originally bought. If property prices rise (as they usually do), your additional shares become more expensive to acquire. Some buyers find they're effectively locked at a low ownership percentage because they can't afford to buy more at current prices.

Run the real numbers for your specific situation. Calculate total monthly cost (mortgage + rent + service charge) and compare it honestly to renting and to saving towards full ownership. If the total cost is competitive and the property is somewhere you'd genuinely want to live for 5–10 years, it can be worth it. If the service charges are high or you value flexibility, it's often better to keep saving.

Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) is a tax on property purchases in England and Northern Ireland. The rates and thresholds changed in April 2025, reducing the reliefs available to first-time buyers. Scotland uses LBTT and Wales uses LTT, and different rules apply in both.

On the first £300,000: 0%. On the portion from £300,001 to £500,000: 5%. Above £500,000: first-time buyer relief no longer applies. Standard rates apply from £0.

In practice: buying at £280,000 = £0 stamp duty. Buying at £350,000 = £2,500 (5% on the £50,000 above £300k). Buying at £500,000 = £10,000. Buying at £525,000 = £16,250 (standard rates, no relief).

First-time buyers in Scotland receive a relief that raises the nil-rate threshold from £145,000 to £175,000. On the portion from £175,001 to £250,000, the rate is 2%. From £250,001 to £325,000 it's 5%. From £325,001 to £750,000 it's 10%. Above £750,000 it's 12%.

There is no first-time buyer relief in Wales. Standard LTT rates apply: 0% up to £225,000, 6% from £225,001 to £400,000, 7.5% from £400,001 to £750,000. On a £250,000 purchase in Wales, you'd pay £1,500.

Stamp duty is due within 14 days of completion. Your conveyancer handles the payment. It comes out of the money you transfer to them before completion. Make sure your day-one cost calculations include it. evir already accounts for the current rates in your upfront breakdown.

Run Evir for your specific area and price. Your results already include the correct stamp duty calculation for your region and purchase price, factored into your total day-one costs.

Last updated: March 2026

Evir is a free tool that helps UK first-time buyers understand their home-buying readiness. We take your privacy seriously. Here is exactly what we do and do not do with your information.

When you use the questionnaire, all calculations happen entirely in your browser. The numbers you enter (income, savings, monthly amount, area) are never sent to our servers. Nothing is stored. If you close the tab, everything is gone.

If you choose to save your results by entering your email address, we collect that email address and a summary of your result (readiness stage, target price, deposit amount, area, and timeline). We use Formspree to deliver this to your inbox.

We do not sell your data. We do not share it with mortgage brokers, lenders, or any third party for marketing purposes. We do not run advertising. We do not use cookies to track you across the web. We do not build a profile of you.

We may use basic, privacy-respecting analytics (such as Plausible) to understand which parts of the tool people find useful. This does not involve tracking individuals, only aggregate counts like how many people completed the questionnaire.

We use Google Fonts to display our chosen typefaces. Google may log your IP address when your browser requests the font files. We use Formspree to handle email submissions.

Referral relationships. Some links in your results — to mortgage brokers such as Habito or L&C, or savings platforms such as Moneybox or Nutmeg — may result in a referral fee paid to Evir if you go on to use that service. This fee comes from the third party, not from you. It does not affect the information or calculations you see. We only link to services we believe are genuinely useful for first-time buyers.

If you submitted your email and want it deleted, email us and we will remove it. Under UK GDPR you have the right to access, correct, and erase any personal data we hold about you.

Questions about this policy? Reach us at: [email protected]

Last updated: March 2026

Evir is an informational tool designed to give UK first-time buyers a general sense of their home-buying readiness. It uses publicly available house price data, standard lender affordability multiples, and government scheme eligibility criteria.

Evir is not financial advice. The results it produces are estimates based on the figures you provide and do not account for your credit history, debts, specific lender policies, or everything a mortgage adviser would consider. Nothing on this site should be treated as a recommendation to buy, sell, borrow, or invest.

Scheme eligibility shown in your results is indicative only — based on the inputs you provided, not a full assessment. Actual eligibility for Shared Ownership, LISA, the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme, or any other scheme depends on factors evir does not collect and must be confirmed directly with the relevant provider or authority.

Evir is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. If you need regulated financial advice, please speak to a qualified mortgage adviser or broker.

We try to keep the data in Evir up to date: average house prices, scheme criteria, deposit thresholds. However, the housing market changes, and scheme rules change. Always verify scheme eligibility and current rates with official sources before making any decisions.

Evir is provided free of charge and as-is. We are not liable for any decisions made on the basis of the tool's output. Use it as one input alongside proper professional advice.

The Evir name, design, and code are the property of Evir. You may not reproduce or redistribute them without permission.

Questions? [email protected]