Mortgages

Mortgage lenders are engaged in a price war for your custom with five-year fixes at record lows – so anyone seeking to fix for a long period should consider their options.

Santander has confirmed it will review a "misunderstood" clause in its buy-to-let mortgage terms, which states landlords must increase rents by "as much as reasonably can be achieved".

If you've a mortgage that's due to renew in 2017, your biggest financial risk may well be that rates will rise rapidly. They've been at historic lows and we've got used to that. Yet some of the cheapest deals, such as HSBC's 0.99% 2yr fix, have been axed this month. And the City's swap rates, one of the factors banks use to decide their fixed rates, have risen - eg, 5yr swaps are up from 0.35% in September to 0.87% now. This has all fuelled fears of further mortgage hikes.

The financial watchdog is to consider whether homebuyers currently have enough information to choose mortgages and if they're in a position to understand whether products are good value.

If you take a historic view, mortgage deals aren't just cheap right now, they're miles below the cheapest. But according to MSE founder Martin Lewis that may be about to change...

If you and your spouse or civil partner both owned property before getting together and are now remortgaging, beware – a new joint remortgage on the home you live in could leave you liable to pay higher-rate stamp duty.

Around 750,000 customers with mortgage payment shortfalls have overpaid when trying to clear their arrears, according to the financial watchdog – with those affected due to be reimbursed hundreds of pounds.

Halifax will once again chop the interest rate offered on its Help to Buy ISA to as low as 2% for new customers from 8 December this year, but this time existing customers will also feel the pinch.

The Government's Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme - part of its flagship programme to boost home ownership – will close to new mortgages on 31 December 2016, it was announced today.

First-time buyers will be able to get a Government bonus towards a first home in time to bolster their deposit when they exchange contracts under the new Lifetime ISA (LISA) scheme, which begins next year.