Once their mortgage application has been accepted in principal, the borrower may have the option of deciding how he or she repays their loan: on a ‘capital and interest’ basis, or on an ‘interest only’ basis.
Capital and Interest Mortgages
An arrangement where part of the monthly repayment is used to pay the interest and the remainder is used to reduce the original amount of the loan. In the early years of the mortgage, most of the monthly repayment goes towards paying the interest; in later years, the interest charges diminish and more of the repayment is available to reduce the loan amount.
Interest-only Mortgages
Interest only mortgages are a type of mortgage where only the interest is repaid. The full capital amount remains outstanding during the mortgage term and is repaid in one lump sum at the end of the term.
Lenders require evidence that a customer will have in place a clear credible repayment strategy and that the repayment strategy has the potential to repay the capital borrowed.
Repayment strategies may include deposits or investment product(s), pension(s), periodic repayment of capital from irregular sources of income (i.e. bonuses), the sale of another property or other land or other acceptable methods which meet lending criteria.
This means that the mortgage payments each month will be lower than those of a repayment mortgage for a similar loan and term. Where the repayment of capital is an investment the investment runs alongside the mortgage but is separate from it; the cost should be taken into account when calculating the overall costs of the mortgage arrangement.
Every month, you then pay this interest to the lender for the duration of the loan. The lender calculates your monthly repayments depending upon how the rate you have chosen is set. The monthly interest payments may vary dependent on whether the interest rate is fixed or variable. At the end of the loan period, the lender will expect the initial capital they lend you to be repaid in full by whatever means you have arranged.
Having decided on the loan repayment method, the borrower then needs to consider what kind of mortgage they want.
