Siop Fach Tea Room and Antiques shop in Mathry for sale
Siop Fach Tea Rooms, located in the heart of this Pembrokeshire hilltop community, includes both a commercial business and residential accommodation.
According to the listing, the property is a "highly successful tea room and restaurant" that also incorporates an antiques and collectables shop.
The business is being sold as a "going concern" and comes furnished and equipped.
(Image: JJ Morris via Zoopla) The premises include a tea room and restaurant area measuring 42'6" by 18'0", with seating for 44 people and a servery area.
A fully equipped kitchen and a store/freezer room are located to the rear.
The listing highlights the presence of an antique and collectables shop measuring 30'0" by 23'0", which is said to have potential for extension to provide further restaurant or tea room seating.
A spacious garage and store shed, measuring 31'6" by 27'6", is attached to the property.
This space includes stairs leading to a storage loft or workshop, which is 45'0" by 18'3" at its maximum.
The listing notes that both the commercial and residential parts of the property benefit from oil-fired central heating and uPVC double glazing.
Adjoining the business premises is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom property known as Fairfield.
(Image: JJ Morris via Zoopla)
The ground floor of Fairfield includes an open-plan kitchen and living room, a conservatory, two bedrooms, a bathroom, and a utility room.
Upstairs, there is a third bedroom with an en suite shower room, as well as a study or hobby room with potential for use as a fourth bedroom.
The residential accommodation features underfloor heating on the ground floor, with radiators on the first floor.
The kitchen is described as fully fitted, including appliances such as a built-in microwave, oven, refrigerator, dishwasher, and induction hob.
The conservatory and living room both have Amtico wood effect floors and access to a private paved patio and lawned garden at the rear of the property.
The listing states that "delightful rural views" can be enjoyed from the garden and patio areas.
(Image: JJ Morris via Zoopla)
Externally, the property has a large gravelled and chipping car park at the front, offering parking and turning space for multiple vehicles.
A sloping, wheelchair-friendly path leads up to the tea room and a large, railed paved patio.
The listing describes the patio as providing "panoramic rural views" over the surrounding countryside.
The property is offered as freehold with vacant possession upon completion.
An additional building plot, which has planning consent for a detached two-storey dwelling house, is available by separate negotiation.
Siop Fach Tea Room and Restaurant is described in the listing as a "thriving going concern".
The business is being sold inclusive of trade furniture and equipment, while the stock in the antiques and collectables shop is available by separate negotiation.
Turnover figures and trading profit and loss accounts are available to interested parties after viewing the property.
Mathry village is located within a few miles of the North Pembrokeshire coastline at Abercastle.
The listing notes that the area is within easy reach of several beaches and coves, as well as the market town of Fishguard and the cathedral city of St David's.
Good road and rail links connect the village to Haverfordwest, Carmarthen, Cardiff, London and the rest of the UK.
The property is connected to mains water, electricity (three phase), and drainage.
Broadband is available at the premises.
The property also has the benefit of a liquor licence.
The listing states that early inspection is recommended to "appreciate the full extent of accommodation and indeed the location and outlook."
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The Herald Scotland
4 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
What is life like in Scotland's most 'popular affordable town'?
Earlier that afternoon, around two and a half miles away in the Macedonia area, Scott Hume is drinking tea in the sunshine outside of his new, temporary flat. Dandelion clocks the size of baseballs rise up from the unkept garden in front of the brutalist concrete cube of the council property. The retired army veteran, 59, narrowly escaped placement in a homeless hostel by the council. It came down to the wire, but a veteran's charity stepped in at the last minute. They helped him secure the temporary council flat in three hours, he tells me. He moved in last night. The idea that Glenrothes is the 'most popular affordable town for families' is a lie, Hume claims, his tone indignant. 'This is a bad place to try and get accommodation.' Welcome to Glenrothes (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) Scott Hume in his rented accommodation (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) The affordable tag was placed on the town in the heart of Fife by Zoopla in early May. The property website measured affordability by looking at the ratio of average three-bed house prices in locations across the UK, compared with average earnings in the local authority area. The popularity ranking was based on the average number of Zoopla listing views for a typical three-bed home in each area, with the research based on the first quarter of 2025. Glenrothes topped the list (which was dominated by Scotland and Wales) with the average price of a three-bedroom home listed as £136,900 and the house-price-to-earnings ratio at 1.8. Wishaw, in North Lanarkshire, was second in Scotland and fifth on the list with £168,600 for the average three-bed and an earnings ratio of 2.1. Leven, a seaside town in Fife where a three-bed is £164,600 on average, came in at third for Scotland (eighth in Britain) with an earnings ratio of 2.1. 'The willingness of many to consider different regions or compromise on property features further highlights the adaptive strategies families are employing in today's market,' said Richard Donnell, executive director at Zoopla. READ MORE: Glenrothes 'UK's most popular location for family house-hunters' Glenrothes is within commuting distance of several Scottish cities. It's just over 30 miles to Edinburgh, and a train from nearby Markinch Station will get you into the capital in just under an hour. By car, you can commute to Glasgow in about an hour, Perth in 40 minutes and Dundee, about 35 minutes. Family house hunters and first-time buyers from the city might migrate to a commuter town like this, where they can stretch their deposit further and get more space for a growing brood. 'We came from Kirkcaldy, but we liked this area better than some other areas,' Mounsey says. 'It's quieter and it's very handy to everywhere.' The commute from Glenrothes to Edinburgh Airport, where she works, is only around 40 minutes, she adds. Basically, the same time it took from Kirkcaldy with traffic. Mounsey's fiancé is training to be a police officer. They don't know where he will be stationed yet, but the ease of access to the motorway means they do not have to worry too much about it. 'We would like something bigger, maybe when we do start a family,' she says. 'Maybe just a slightly bigger garden, but we're not fussed about leaving here.' 'In Glenrothes, you get a lot more for your money than in cities,' explains Dylan Kimmet, a local property partner at Purple Bricks. 'You'll get more garden space, a bit more room. I think overall it's quite a nice place to live. It's got a really good community vibe and a lot of people know each other on a community level.' Kayla Mounsey in her Bellway home (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) Bellway advertisements (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) A general view of Glenrothes (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) Glenrothes was Scotland's second new town (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) Glenrothes was designated as one of Scotland's first post-war new towns in 1948, with most of its housing built by the Glenrothes Development Corporation and later managed by Fife Council. From the 1950s through the 1970s, large council estates were built in areas like Auchmuty, Macedonia, Pitteuchar, and Collydean, their curved roads complemented by the clean lines and flat roofs of modernist housing. At the time, renting your house from the council was commonplace. But by the 1980s, the attitude towards council housing shifted. Margaret Thatcher's Right to Buy scheme, founded on the idealisation of home ownership and the ideological idea that it would shrink the need for social housing, forever changed the make-up of towns like Glenrothes. As in many other places, it created a two-tier housing market that separated new homeowners with equity and renters grappling with a dwindling supply of housing options within their means. Now, 10 years on from when the SNP ended the Right to Buy scheme, its legacy still haunts those who were left behind. The affordability touted by Zoopla's figures makes sense on paper, but when I put this to people in Glenrothes, many asked, affordable to whom? Inside his new temporary flat, veteran Scott Hume explains he has been struggling to access accommodation in the town since the breakdown of his relationship during the pandemic. His things are piled around him, brought over from his former flat with the help of the Armed Forces charity SSAFA. Hume retired from the army in 1996 but has kept close links with the Services. Scott Hume has kept close links to the army after retiring (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) A playful grin flashes across his face when his satirical t-shirt is pointed out (it reads, 'Royal Engineer (Rtd) – responsible adult supervision is required at all times.'). He's a proud man, but the distress of coming so close to being placed in a homeless hostel is ever-present behind his eyes when we speak. Last February, Hume fell off a roof. The accident left him with a disability, unable to work and with new accessibility requirements for accommodation. 'Being out of work destroyed me,' he says. But his journey through the housing system started four years prior, this is just the latest knock in his quest to find a home. When Hume first reached out to the council for help with accommodation, he says he was advised to secure a private let and told the waitlist was 'about 16 months'. As part of Fife Council's Covenant Commitment, the local authority allocates a minimum of 40 properties annually to Armed Forces personnel. But this is 'ideally at the point when they leave the forces,' according to Gavin Smith, Fife Council's access service manager. Hume says: 'After 16 months, I inquired about it and [they] said, 'you're not on the list, you've got a roof over your head'. So, I was stuck then,' he says. His private rental was around £500, and Hume enjoyed a good relationship with his landlord. But a few years after he moved in, Hume's landlord broke the news that she had to sell the flat so she could retire. She gave him as much notice as she could, around 15 months. The last time he had to look for a flat, Hume says there were 'hundreds' on the private market. 'Now you're lucky if there's a couple.' And the rents have jumped from £500 per month to between £750 and £850 for a flat the same size. 'That's not affordable,' he adds. Glenrothes is close to Scotland's major cities (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) He and his landlord have been navigating the Scottish Government's eviction process since. Landlords must go to the First-tier Tribunal to legally evict a tenant, and the whole process can take weeks or months. But councils do not treat someone as 'homeless' until they are formally evicted, leaving vulnerable people like Hume in limbo. 'How long is temporary? Not knowing is worse than anything,' he says. He claims the temporary council flat is costing £623 a fortnight, £1246 per month. "The council's rent policy is reviewed annually, but the costs of temporary accommodation are higher than standard council rents,' says Smith. 'Where households have no choice but to enter temporary accommodation, we'll make arrangements with them to pay what they can afford based on an income and expenditure calculation. 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'It's now housing a really wide cross section of society, with one in seven households in the private rented sector, and that's one of the real difficulties. The affordability of rent is very different between social and private, but you also have different housing rights in terms of security of tenure as well. It's very difficult for people.' The three leading contributors to the current housing crisis are fallout from the Right to Buy scheme, a broken allocation system for social housing, and a lack of investment in new council houses. 'In the 1980s, it was pretty common to rent from a social landlord,' Dr McKee explains. 'Big urban centres house a lot of the population, but now it's more difficult to access social housing if you're not coming through the homeless system. If you're applying for a general waiting list, you can wait a very, very long time.' 'It's very difficult for people, they're stuck,' she adds. 'They're languishing on temporary accommodation lists and often the only option they have is to rent privately, which obviously, budget-wise, can be more expensive for them than renting from a social landlord would be.' Those who do not have the means to save for a deposit are shut out of the housing market. Bad credit, precarious work, disability and rising rents can make climbing the property ladder inaccessible to many. Wider shifts in the economy related to the cost of living crisis (rising energy bills, inflation, surging cost of food) have also contributed to the trade-offs young families are making to stretch their budgets. Hence, the uptick in first-time house hunters seeking out communities like Glenrothes. Peter Gulline, 59, moved to Glenrothes aged 13. The Conservative politician was elected councillor of the Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch Ward in 2022. He says wherever new housing estates are built, the properties are always 'gobbled up'. A lot of the market is people in Glenrothes moving to another property, he claims. The current strain on services is temporary. 'We just have to get through this hiccup of everything being really, really busy and weather the storm,' he says. The private rental market has also 'gone through the roof', but councillor Gulline does not see that as a 'bad thing'. He does not agree that the Right to Buy scheme has contributed to the housing crisis. 'People say we've lost 40,000 houses because they were sold off,' he says. 'Well, actually, we haven't lost 40,000 houses. We've lost the responsibility of having to maintain 40,000 houses, but they are still houses. 'There is still somebody living in them. They've not been bought, bulldozed and replaced with a car park.' He describes the wait for social housing as a game of snakes and ladders when I ask about the backlog for council homes. 'Everybody thinks there's a list. And the list has got 17,000 people on it,' he says. 'There are actually multiple lists.' He rattles off some of the categories: homelessness, disability, domestic abuse, and prison leavers. 'It's not a list that you just crawl up. It's a list you can move up and get knocked down a couple of pegs if people come along that had more justification.' Marissa MacWhirter in a Glenrothes park (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) The town is known for its public art (Image: Gordon Terris/Herald&Times) As far as Gulline is concerned, 'Glenrothes is a fantastic town for families.' It's easy to navigate, it has plenty of decent schools, there are lots of parks and green space, and clubs and activities for the young and old. The administrative capital of Fife, the town also boasts the largest shopping centre in the council area (Kingdom Shopping Centre) and decent transport links from the bus station. The number of outdoor artworks dotted around town, the carefully landscaped roundabouts, and the spring flowers blooming from every public space give Glenrothes a wholesome community feeling, even for those just passing through. The town, like many in Scotland, is caught between two narratives. Its affordability gives many the chance to get on the housing ladder and provides young families with a safe, quiet community in which to raise children. But the housing crisis has made the security of home ownership increasingly out of reach for many. Fife Council acknowledges the 'extreme pressure' it's under to meet housing needs in the crisis. The local authority has created the Fife Housing Register, a shared list providing a single access route to available homes, in partnership with local housing associations. "We're actively reducing waiting times for those assessed as statutorily homeless as part of our short-term housing emergency response, though challenges remain, especially for larger families and those with specific health or disability needs,' says the authority's housing access service manager. 'Precise information about housing prospects is difficult to provide. We understand the uncertainty this creates and remain committed to supporting applicants through the process." I ask Hume how he feels about his new temporary accommodation. 'I've got no storage, but it's better than a hostel,' he sighs. Marissa MacWhirter is a columnist and feature writer at The Herald, and the editor of The Glasgow Wrap. The newsletter is curated between 5-7am each morning, bringing the best of local news to your inbox each morning without ads, clickbait, or hyperbole. Oh, and it's free. She can be found on X @marissaamayy1
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
The best mortgage rates for first-time buyers: What deals are available and how long should you fix for?
If you're hoping to buy your first home soon, searching for the best mortgage rates for first-time buyers is an essential part of the process. Data from Zoopla revealed the property market saw the busiest May in four years, amid an increased number of properties for sale and relaxed affordability stress tests, allowing many first-time buyers to borrow more. This is despite April's Stamp Duty hike, which means first-time buyers now pay more tax when purchasing a property after they saw their exemption trimmed back. Getting the best possible mortgage deal is important because it can make a big difference to your monthly repayments - and the interest you pay overall. Mortgage rates for the rest of 2025 are widely expected to trend downwards but no big falls are expected, so first-time buyers should compare mortgage deals to secure one that's right for them, as soon as they decide to buy. > Compare mortgage deals and get a free mortgage in principle with L&C * Best mortgage rates for first-time buyers at different LTVs The deals below are the best rates aimed at first-time buyers. The best rates for home movers or those remortgaging may be different. The rates and repayments below are based on a purchase of £226,000 and a term of 25 years. Mortgage rates change often, so it's a good idea to find the deal that could be best for you by comparing rates and getting a mortgage in principle *, with our broker partner L&C. Best mortgage rates for first-time buyers with a 5% deposit Two-year fix: HSBC has a two-year fixed rate at 5.05 per cent with a £0 product fee and £500 cashback. Monthly repayments are £1,260. Five-year fix: HSBC has a five-year fixed rate at 4.89 per cent with a £0 product fee and £500 cashback. Monthly repayments are £1,240. Best mortgage rates for first-time buyers with a 10% deposit Two-year fix: Furness has a two-year fixed rate at 4.45 per cent with a £999 product fee and £250 cashback. Monthly repayments are £1,130. Five-year fix: Leek has a five-year fixed rate at 4.38 per cent with a £995 product fee. Monthly repayments are £1,122. Best mortgage rates for first-time buyers with a 15% deposit Two-year fix: Furness has a two-year fixed rate at 4.17 per cent with a £999 product fee and £250 cashback. Monthly repayments are £1,037. Five-year fix: HSBC has a five-year fixed rate at 4.32 per cent with a £999 product fee. Monthly repayments are £1,048. Best mortgage rates for first-time buyers with a 25% deposit Two-year fix: Barclays has a two-year fixed rate at 4.28 per cent with a £0 product fee. Monthly repayments are £922. Five-year fix: HSBC has a five-year fixed rate at 4.28 per cent with a £0 product fee. Monthly repayments are £920. Best mortgage rates for first-time buyers with a 40% deposit Two-year fix: Mpowered has a two-year fixed rate at 4.19 per cent with a £0 product fee. Monthly repayments are £730. Five-year fix: Barclays has a five-year fixed rate at 3.99 per cent with a £999 product fee. Monthly repayments are £715. > Guide: How to get a mortgage as a first-time buyer What mortgage can I get as a first-time buyer? The mortgage deal you can get as a first-time buyer depends on the size of your deposit, as well as your personal circumstances, your income, outgoings, any other outstanding debts and credit score. Having a bigger deposit relative to the purchase price opens up cheaper mortgage rates, as lenders see you as a less risky borrower. Mortgage rates are offered based on the size of the mortgage versus the property's value. This is known as the loan-to-value (LTV) and is the reverse percentage of your deposit amount. For example: if you had a 10 per cent deposit, your mortgage would be 90 per cent LTV if you had a 25 per cent deposit, it would be 75 per cent LTV if you had a 40 per cent deposit, it would be 60 per cent LTV > Compare mortgage rates at different loan-to-values with L&C * Although they assess on individual affordability, mortgage lenders typically limit most people to borrowing roughly no more than 4.5 times their annual income. However, this can be lower if you have any other loans or debts – or higher if your income is stable, you have an excellent credit history and little existing debt. Speaking to a whole-of-market mortgage broker, rather than going direct to a bank or building society, is the easiest way of getting matched to the cheapest possible mortgage deal. Mortgage brokers will also run an affordability check to see what the maximum amount you can borrow is, looking at information from bank statements, payslips or tax returns. David Hollingworth, mortgage expert and broker at L&C Mortgages, told us there have been positive developments recently that could benefit first-time buyers. 'The biggest issues are affordability and being able to save a big enough deposit. Lenders have reacted quickly to the FCA's reminder that they have some flexibility in how they stress test affordability. That has seen many improve the stress rates which should allow more borrowers to achieve a bigger mortgage.' What first-time buyer help schemes are available? Some mortgage providers have introduced first-time buyer help schemes that boost how much first-time buyers can potentially borrow. Nationwide's 'Helping Hand' mortgage gives employed first-time buyers the ability to borrow up to six times income – those with a smaller deposit of five per cent are even eligible. This means couples earning £50,000 can borrow £300,000 for their first home, which is roughly £75,000 more than standard lending. Halifax's 'First Time Buyer Boost' mortgage works in a similar way, allowing first-time buyers to borrow up to 5.5 times their annual income. To be eligible, first-time buyers need to be employed and earning a total household income of £50,000 or more. They also need to have a deposit of at least 10 per cent to put towards the purchase of the property. Certain lenders provide higher multiples for particular professions, usually secure public sector jobs such as nurses or civil servants. Some providers are even offering mortgage deals that don't require a deposit, although buyers need to have good affordability and should be prepared to fix for longer. George Smith, Mortgage Adviser at LDN Finance, told us that despite the availability of these 100 per cent mortgages, many first-time buyers struggle to meet the criteria to qualify for them. 'In practice, these schemes often require a joint income to meet lenders' stress tests, making it difficult for single buyers to take advantage of them. As such, the concept of a sole applicant successfully securing one of these loans is more theoretical than realistic in today's climate. 'Moreover, with house prices remaining stubbornly high and showing little sign of downward movement, the gap between earnings and property values continues to grow.' How long should first-time buyers fix a mortgage for? Choosing how long to fix your mortgage rate for depends on what you think will happen to interest rates over the fixed period and your personal circumstances. A longer fix offers security and can save on fees from repeatedly remortgaging. Often people can avoid five-year fixes because they think they will move but most homeowners stay longer than two or three years in a property. Ask yourself, will you really need to move again after just a few years? Most people fix for either two years or five years, although there are some who will fix for three years or even 10 years. People often fix for two years because they believe that interest rates will continue falling, so a shorter fix allows them to eventually switch to a cheaper rate. Shorter fixes can also suit people who think they'll want to move again soon – fixing for longer might open them up to an early repayment charge on the mortgage were they to exit early. But there's no easy answer, so you have to think about what's best for your situation. George Smith, Mortgage Adviser at LDN Finance, says that the length of the fix is completely dependent on the homebuyer's situation and outlook. 'However, the majority of borrowers are currently opting for shorter-term fixed rates, with a view to reviewing things in two to three years' time.' Remember though, there is no guarantee rates will me materially lower in two or three years' time - and they could be higher. What about a tracker mortgage? A tracker mortgage essentially tracks the Bank of England's base rate plus or minus a fixed percentage. For example: The mortgage could track base rate, currently at 4.25 per cent, while adding 0.5 percentage points, making the rate 4.75 per cent. If the Bank of England were to then cut base rate from 4.25 per cent to 3.75 per cent, the tracker rate will immediately fall to 4.25 per cent. A tracker mortgage without an early repayment charge could put borrowers in a position to take advantage when rates drop, but not all trackers come without fees for jumping ship. Meanwhile, despite the potential benefits, a tracker can leave people vulnerable to further base rate hikes while also being more expensive at the start than fixed rates at present. Broker George Smith says that people ask him about trackers regularly, but he then questions: 'If the base rate were to rise for any reason, would you have sufficient assets or savings to comfortably absorb an increase in your monthly mortgage payment – on top of all the other rising living costs? 'More often than not, for first-time buyers or those early in their ownership journey, the ability to budget and have certainty over their biggest monthly outgoing is really appealing in the current climate.' First-time buyer checklist: Getting ready to buy your first home 1. Build a deposit Your deposit usually needs to be at least five per cent of the value of a property, but many mortgage lenders ask that first-time buyers have at least 10 per cent. The higher your deposit the better. Not only will you have less debt to repay, but those who put down larger deposits as a percentage of the property's value will usually get better interest rates. Still, you should avoid throwing everything at the deposit – it's wise to keep an emergency savings fund and you'll need money for other costs associated with home buying. To build a deposit quicker, work out your budget to find out how much you can afford to save regularly then contribute monthly to a savings account that pays a high interest rate. What is a Lifetime Isa? A Lifetime Isa can help you save for a deposit quicker because the Government gives you a 25 per cent bonus on your contributions. So if you save the maximum of £4,000 in your Lifetime Isa each year, the Government will top this up by £1,000. But be careful though, because Lifetime Isas can only be used to buy homes of up to £450,000. How much is the average deposit for first-time buyers? According to figures from UK Finance, the average deposit paid by first-time buyers in 2024 who didn't receive help from family was £60,741. On the other hand, the average deposit paid by those who did have assistance from family was £118,073. 2. Check your credit history Checking your credit history as soon as possible gives you enough time to iron out problems and improve your credit file if necessary. Issues such as a history of late payments or a lack of data about your financial obligations – known as a thin credit file – aren't quick to fix. Checking your credit file at least 12 months before you want to apply for a mortgage gives you the best chance of getting your credit history into shape. How to check your credit history Checking your credit score is your first port of call because it's based on the data in your credit file and represents the health of your credit history. You don't have one credit score. Each credit reference agency calculates your score differently and mortgage providers have their own systems for working out your creditworthiness too. But the scores you get from the credit reference agencies are a useful indicator of how a mortgage lender will view your application. You can get a free credit score at: Experian ClearScore (not a credit reference agency – uses Equifax data) Credit Karma (not a credit reference agency – uses TransUnion data) TotallyMoney (not a credit reference agency – uses TransUnion data) These services usually let you view your full credit report too. A good score indicates that the mortgage lender is more likely to see you as creditworthy while a poorer score suggests it will view you as riskier to lend to. A poor score warrants further investigation into where to improve. You can view your credit score and credit history as many times as you like without damaging them, because accessing your own data is recorded as a 'soft' search and isn't visible to lenders when they look at your file. 3. Boost your credit score if necessary You don't need a set credit score to get a mortgage as a first-time buyer. Even if you have an excellent score, there's no guarantee a mortgage lender will accept your application. But a good credit score indicates it's more likely you'll be able to borrow the amount you need at the cheapest interest rates. This makes it worth improving if it's not where you want it to be. You can improve your credit score by taking steps such as registering to vote, if you haven't already, and reducing your credit utilisation. This is how much of your available credit you're using across all your credit cards. As a basic example, if you have one credit card with a £6,000 credit limit and a £3,000 balance, your credit utilisation will be 50 per cent. It's generally recommended to keep your credit utilisation below 25 per cent. Work out your credit utilisation ratio by adding up your credit card balances, dividing this by your total available credit limit, and multiplying that figure by 100 to get a percentage. > A scam wrecked my credit score: Can I put our mortgage in my wife's name? 4. Get your bank statements on track Lenders ask for three months' of bank statements to check things like: the consistency of your income your affordability your regular outgoings your regular balance (for example, whether you're hitting your overdraft limit often) A healthy bank statement will show you have a steady income each month, recurring monthly bills that are paid on time, and purchases that still leave you with reasonable cash reserves. This shows you'll be able to afford mortgage payments without any problem. On the other hand, using an overdraft regularly can imply to lenders that you find it difficult to manage your money. Spending significant amounts on things lenders deem risky, such as gambling, can cause similar concerns. Returned direct debits, which occur when you don't have sufficient funds in your account, can also suggest that you find it difficult to make payments on time. 5. Speak to a mortgage broker It's possible to approach mortgage providers directly, but first-time buyers may find it useful to have a mortgage broker guide them through the application process. A good mortgage broker can scour deals from lots of lenders and discuss which one is best for you. They may also have access to special rates that banks don't offer to everyone. Some brokers charge customers a fee for their services. But you can also find brokers that take a commission from the mortgage lender instead and don't charge homebuyers anything. When looking for a mortgage broker, check they're whole of market. This means they look at all of the mortgages available across many lenders, instead of being paid fees by a select few to only offer buyers their deals. Mortgage brokers are also called mortgage advisers – the terms are usually used interchangeably.
