Home mover mortgages are specifically designed for clients who are moving home. Some may have a free valuation, offer cashback or an offer of free legal fees. Shopping around to get the best deal could save you thousands.

When you are moving home, you can either pay your mortgage off and take a new one or move the mortgage to a new property, known as ‘porting’. Not all mortgages are portable, and some mortgages can have penalties if you pay them off within the fixed or discount period.

Moving home is a great time to review your mortgage and protection to make sure you have the best deal. The best mortgage deal may be with your current lender but shopping around could save you thousands.

Porting is a term used by mortgage companies for moving your mortgage from one property to another. Not all mortgages are portable. If you are considering a move it’s always best to check your mortgage terms and conditions.

It is possible to move your mortgage to a cheaper property on completion of the sale of your current property. The factors you’ll need to consider, perhaps with the assistance of a broker, are: whether your mortgage is portable; if there will be enough deposit to meet a new lender’s criteria; and what fees you may be subjected to if you need to reduce the overall loan amount borrowed.

Lenders often look at maintaining the deposit loan-to-value percentage when considering porting to a lower value - so if you put down a 25% deposit when you took out your current mortgage, the lender may expect to see a 25% deposit on the new, cheaper property.

The main things that dictate how much a person or couple can borrow is income and their current credit commitments. All lenders have different ways to calculate what someone can borrow. To find out the maximum mortgage you may be able to secure, contact Miles & Barr’s advisers for a no-obligation assessment.

You will need a minimum of 5% deposit. The greater the deposit you have, the more preferential the interest rates may be. For example, if you put in 15% deposit this will generally get you a better interest rate than a 10% deposit.

The building itself needs to be insured as a minimum. Miles & Barr would usually recommend that you also insure the contents within your home too. Other insurances we recommend are Life Insurance and Income Protection insurance.

The recent actions from lenders indicate a general feeling of positivity about the future of the housing market as we move into 2022, with the expectation of seeing similar levels of transactions as the past year – which, perhaps to the surprise of some, saw the highest number of completions in 15 years!

If you’ve got 6 months left on a fixed rate, and you don’t want to pay an ERC (Early Repayment Charge) to switch to a new rate now, you can fix a deal 6 months in advance of the end of your rate with most lenders - this is possible as most mortgage offers are valid for 6 months. That way, if rates continue to decrease between now and then you can look at switching to a lower rate in that time. On the other hand, if rates continue to increase you’ll have secured your rate and won’t be affected by any impending rate increase in that time. A win-win in any outcome.

For those in a fixed rate with a year left or longer, wondering whether it’s worth paying an ERC (early repayment charge) to tie in for a new deal now - rather than reviewing in 6 - 9 months’ time when rates may have increased - you need to take into consideration the costs of this decision, the ERC percentage and other associated fees the lender may have for clearing the loan early.

It's best to speak to a broker if you’re in this situation. They’ll be able to establish whether the savings you’ll make by switching to a new deal early are worth the ERCs.

Yes, however you could have early repayment charges to pay if you have only had your mortgage product for a short amount of time.