MT Focus - How to pick a mortgage

A Q&A with the experts

Feel free to file this one away for future reference.

By all recent indicators - OK, the Rightmove, Nationwide and Halifax house price indices - it’s boom time for the housing market. Prices are going up, and so is interest.

The latter two are cautious about the future though - both have suggested that a crash could be on the horizon, especially given the state of the jobs market.

Indeed, lenders tend to be more cautious about the future - they are making an investment in buyers after all, and they want to be sure of a return. Case in point, the number of mortgage products available has halved since March while rates have risen according to comparison site Moneyfacts.

And yet, bolstered by Rishi Sunak’s stamp duty freeze, homes are changing hands and mortgages are being approved.

With that in mind, this month’s MT Focus is on how to pick a mortgage. For this, I spoke to Paul Wheatcroft, director of My Local Mortgage, a website that connects you with mortgage advisors, and Richard Hayes, CE…