Monthly archive for September 2026

Over 4.2 million UK businesses currently lease their premises, paying a combined £127 billion annually in commercial rent. A growing number are asking a genuinely straightforward question: why keep paying someone else's mortgage? But funding that shift, or raising capital for any other business purpose, can come from genuinely different sources – your own home, or the business's own commercial property – and the right choice depends on what you're actually trying to achieve. Two Genuinely Different Starting Points If you don't yet own premises, buying rather than renting means comparing the cost of a commercial mortgage against your current rent. Our Occupier Mortgages page covers this route in detail, with rates commonly ranging from 5% to 9% and loan-to-value typically capped at 70-75%, assessed against your business's own trading performance rather than personal income. Using Your Home Instead of the Business's Own Asset If you already own your home, our Homeowner Business Loans page covers raising capital against its equity specifically to fund your business, worth considering where the business itself doesn't yet own an asset to borrow against, or where you'd rather keep business and property finance genuinely separate. The Genuine Trade-Off Worth Understanding Using your home turnsRead more →

The FCA anticipates a genuine maturity bulge in 2031 and 2032, with tens of thousands of interest-only mortgages reaching term without a credible repayment plan in place – and an estimated 260,000 people currently have no plan whatsoever for how they'll repay their loan. Understanding who this product genuinely suits, and what can go wrong, matters more in 2026 than at almost any point since the product's heyday in the 1990s and 2000s. How Interest-Only Actually Works Your monthly payment covers only the interest due, never reducing the capital you originally borrowed. This keeps payments genuinely lower than a repayment mortgage, but you'll still owe the full original amount at the end of the term – meaning a credible plan for clearing that balance isn't optional, it's a regulatory requirement. Why the Market Has Genuinely Tightened Only 541,000 interest-only mortgages remained outstanding at the end of 2024, down 18.5% on the year before, reflecting how much stricter lending has become. Current criteria commonly include loan-to-value ceilings around 75%, minimum income thresholds often in the £75,000-£100,000 range, and, where selling the property is the declared repayment strategy, substantial minimum equity requirements running into several hundred thousand pounds. The Regulatory Requirement BehindRead more →

The Bank of Mum and Dad is genuinely one of the largest mortgage lenders in the UK by volume, bigger than several mid-tier high street banks, with roughly half of first-time buyers receiving some form of family financial help. But "family help" isn't one single thing – three genuinely different structures exist, each solving a different problem, and choosing the wrong one can cost thousands in Stamp Duty alone. Why the Right Structure Depends on the Actual Problem As Which? puts it clearly: guarantor mortgages are better suited if a buyer is struggling to save for a deposit, while a JBSP structure helps if the buyer needs help accessing a larger mortgage. These are genuinely different problems, and it's worth being honest about which one you're actually facing before choosing how family should help. A Straightforward Cash Gift Our Gifted Deposit Mortgage page covers the simplest route – family gives money outright, with no repayment expected and no ongoing claim on the property. It's worth transferring gifted funds at least 90 days before your application and gathering source-of-funds documentation early, since timing mistakes here are a genuinely common cause of delay. For gifts over £50,000, it's also worth a briefRead more →