Mortgage guides, without the jargon.
Every stage of the UK mortgage journey explained in the order you actually need it — with the numbers, criteria and documents attached.
These guides cover the UK mortgage process end to end. The journey has six stages: budget and credit check, mortgage in principle (valid 60–90 days on a soft footprint), accepted offer, full application, valuation and underwriting, then formal offer, exchange and completion — typically 4 to 8 weeks from application to offer. Core rules to know: 5% is the practical minimum deposit with 95% LTV products widely available, 100% LTV exists for proven renters via Skipton's Track Record, standard lending is 4.5× income rising to 5.5–6× under professional schemes, and every application needs ID, three years of address history, three months of payslips or two years of accounts, three months of bank statements and evidence of deposit source.
The numbers, at a glance.
Buying a home
From first deposit to keys, including the stages most guides skip.
Refinancing and investing
Timing, stress tests and the cost of doing nothing.
Specialist income and protection
If your income isn't a flat salary, these are the rules that decide the outcome.
The detail lenders won't tell you.
The six stages, with realistic timings
Stage one is budget and credit: pull your file from two agencies and fix errors before any lender sees it. Stage two is a mortgage in principle — a soft-footprint indication valid 60–90 days that estate agents will ask for. Stage three is the accepted offer. Stage four is full application with documents, where completeness determines speed more than anything else. Stage five is valuation and underwriting, typically 5–15 working days. Stage six is formal offer, then exchange and completion, usually 4–8 weeks later in a chain.
Why two identical salaries get different offers
Income multiples are a ceiling, not a calculation. Lenders start at 4.5× gross, then deduct committed expenditure: credit cards at 3–5% of balance a month, car finance in full, student loan repayments, childcare and each dependant. A £60,000 earner with no commitments may be offered £270,000; the same salary with £400 a month of car finance and two children can drop below £215,000. Clearing a single car loan often adds more borrowing capacity than a pay rise.
The document pack that avoids a second request
Underwriters decline or delay for evidence gaps far more often than for the numbers themselves. Prepare, in one place: photo ID, three years of unbroken address history, three months of payslips or two years of accounts plus SA302s and tax year overviews, three months of full personal bank statements (all pages), proof of deposit and a clear audit trail for its source, latest P60, and a signed contract if you are a contractor. Gifted deposits need a donor letter confirming the funds are a gift with no repayment or interest in the property.
Where these numbers come from.
- FCA MCOB 11 — responsible lending — Affordability assessment and stress-testing requirements.
- UK Finance lending statistics — Approval timescales and product mix.
- HMRC Stamp Duty Land Tax guidance — Rates, first-time buyer relief and the additional-property surcharge.
Rates, criteria and schemes cited are indicative of the UK market at time of publication and change frequently. Elena verifies live rates against 90+ lender panels before every application.
Questions, answered.
Elena, our AI mortgage expert, can answer it in seconds — or book you a free callback with a human broker.
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