Whether you’re a first-time buyer, moving home or staying put and remortgaging, you’ll find everything you need to know to help you choose a suitable mortgage.

You’ll find everything you need to know: how mortgages work, how you can work out what you can afford, and where you can go to compare mortgages.

If you’d like more detailed information, get our Mortgages guide. You can download or order it online at Free printed guides. There you can also find our Home purchase plans guide, which has information on buying a home in a way that a number of scholars of Islamic law consider acceptable.

A mortgage is like any other kind of loan – you borrow money, and you pay it back with interest over a period of time. But it’s important to be aware that a mortgage is secured against your home. So if for any reason you can’t repay it, the lender can sell your home to recover their money.

Although the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the UK’s financial services regulator, regulates the way the majority of mortgages are sold, in most cases it doesn't regulate buy-to-let mortgages. This means you may have less protection if things go wrong with a buy-to-let mortgage. Buying a property to let is a long-term investment which you hope will generate an income from rents and a capital gain when you sell the property. There is no guarantee that you'll make a profit on your investment.

For information on buy-to-let mortgages, see the Council of Mortgage Lender’s website at Related links.