Mortgage Comparison NI

YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR ANY OTHER DEBT SECURED ON IT. CompareNI does not provide any financial services in connection with mortgages. The order of listings does not represent any advice, recommendation or comparison by CompareNI.

Mortgage Comparison NI

Whether you’re hoping to buy a luxury apartment in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, a country cottage in Fermanagh or Tyrone, or a townhouse in Lisburn, Newry or Armagh, it’s important to find the right mortgage provider – and the right interest rate on your mortgage.

The good news is CompareNI.com can help with that. Our mortgage comparison NI directory can help you find and compare Northern Ireland mortgages no matter where you’re based and no matter what type of property you’re planning to buy.

Mortgages Northern Ireland – a straightforward guide

What are the most important things to bear in mind when I start to compare Northern Ireland mortgages?

The interest rate a mortgage provider in Northern Ireland is willing to offer you will obviously be front and centre in your mind, but it’s not the only factor you should consider when you’re comparing mortgages in Northern Ireland.

Many Northern Ireland mortgage providers charge fees (known as arrangement fees) when you take out a mortgage with them, and those can range anywhere from zero up to £2,000 or £2,500. The average mortgage arrangement fee is around the £1,000 mark, so it’s worth double checking whether a lender’s own fee is higher or lower than this when you’re comparing Northern Ireland mortgages.

Another important consideration is whether you are likely to meet the mortgage provider’s lending criteria. For instance, if you’re a first-time buyer with a 5% deposit but you discover that the lender you had in mind usually specialises in remortgages or doesn’t have any 95% LTV mortgage deals then it might be back to the drawing board with your mortgage comparison NI.

What is a 95% LTV mortgage?

LTV stands for Loan to Value, and represents the proportion of the purchase price that will be covered by the home loan instead of your deposit. So if you have a 5% deposit you would need a 95% LTV mortgage, if you had a 10% mortgage you’d need an LTV of 90%, and so on.

Is LTV the same as the loan-to-income ratio?

No, the loan-to-income ratio (also known as 'income multiples') is a ratio that some mortgage providers in Northern Ireland use to calculate how much you can afford to borrow. Most lenders will cap this ratio at 4 or 5 times your annual income, which means if you earn £30,000 a year the lender might be willing to offer you a £120,000 or £150,000 mortgage.

You would then add your deposit to that loan amount to give you a ballpark figure of how much you can afford when buying your property.

For example, if your lender is willing to lend you £120,000, and you have saved a £14,000 deposit, then you will know that you can afford a property with a market value of £134,000.

You can then calculate the Loan-to-Value ratio you need in order to buy your new home. In this example your £14,000 deposit would equate to slightly more than 10% of the purchase price, which means you could apply for a mortgage with a 90% LTV in order to buy your £134,000 house.

Does the LTV ratio on the mortgage product I choose affect the interest rate on my NI mortgage?

Yes, mortgage brokers often rank mortgages by their LTVs, and in most cases you should notice the interest rate gets lower as the LTV gets lower.

The reason mortgage lenders are willing to offer better interest rates on Northern Ireland mortgages that have lower LTVs is that these mortgages generally have a lower risk of default.

Can I get a mortgage in Northern Ireland if I don’t have a deposit?

It used to be fairly straightforward to get a ‘no deposit mortgage’ in Northern Ireland, because quite a few lenders offered 100% Loan to Value ratios, which meant the full purchase price was covered by the home loan.

That all changed during the credit crunch-induced recession in 2008 – since then the vast majority of mortgage lenders offer a maximum Loan to Value of 95%, which means you have to have a 5% at the very least.

Some mortgage providers might be willing to offer guarantor mortgages if you don’t have a deposit, but that does mean you would need to have someone who is willing to take on the home loan if you are ever unable to make the repayments.

How can I find the best mortgage rates in Northern Ireland?

Simply put, you need to shop around by comparing mortgage offers from a range of different lenders, because every mortgage