There’s literally thousands of home loans available to borrowers who are trying to get on the property ladder, so which are the best first-time buyer mortgages?

The good news is that interest rates remain low, despite the increase in the Bank of England’s base rate in February from 0.25% to 0.5%. But best doesn’t always mean cheapest.

As inflation rises to 5.4%, household budgets are under pressure so you might prefer the stability of a long-term fixed rate or a low-deposit mortgage that requires less savings.

That’s why, with almost 3,000 mortgage deals open to first-time buyers according to finance experts Moneyfacts, it’s worth shopping around before choosing your first mortgage.

Aaron Strutt of mortgage broker Trinity Financial says: ‘If you only approach one or two lenders when you’re looking for a mortgage deal you could miss out on the cheapest rate, the most generous income stretches or a greater choice of medium and long-term fixed rates.’

Some banks and building societies offer first-time buyers or professionals a mortgage that is 5.5 times their annual salary to boost their buying power. Some lenders offer even more.

Lenders also offer a range of low or no deposit deals, fee-free options, cashback incentives and mortgage terms of up to 40 years if you want to keep your monthly repayments low.

‘The bank of mum and dad has been busier than ever but there are other guarantor options such as a joint borrower, sole proprietor arrangement to explore,’ explains Aaron. ‘Parents join first-time buyers on the mortgage but they are not added to the title deeds of the property.’

Here’s a round-up of the best first-time buyer mortgages:

Yorkshire Building Society – first-time buyer exclusive

• Rate – 2.36%
• Type – fixed rate
• Duration – two years
• Minimum deposit – 5%
• Mortgage fee – £995

The society offers a free valuation and £250 cash back when the mortgage completes. If you want to repay the loan early penalties will apply. Overpayments of your mortgage are restricted to 10% of your balance each year.

Santander – residential mortgage range

• Rate – 1.64%
• Type – fixed rate
• Duration – two years
• Minimum deposit – 10%
• Mortgage fee £999

With a 10% deposit, first-time buyers can lock into a low fixed rate for two years. The deal comes with Santander’s Homebuyer Solution package which offers a free standard valuation and £250 cash back on completion. Penalties apply if you repay within two years.

Nationwide Building Society – Helping Hand range

• Rate – 2.49%
• Type – fixed rate
• Duration – five years
• Minimum deposit – 10%
• Mortgage fee – £995

First-time buyers can borrow up to 5.5 times their salary. Ten-year fixed rate deals are available along with fee-free options. Self-employed borrowers are excluded. Free valuation and £500 cash back on completion. Mortgage term of up to 40 years allowed. Early repayment fees apply.

HSBC – sub 1% for deposit-rich buyers

• Rate – 1.24%
• Type – tracker mortgage
• Duration – two years
• Minimum deposit – 40%
• Mortgage fee £999

No early repayment charges apply. The mortgage rate is 0.74% more than the Bank of England base rate, currently 0.5% – so you pay 1.24%. If the base rate rises, so does your mortgage rate.

Metro Bank – joint borrower, sole proprietor

• Rate – 2.09%
• Type – fixed rate
• Duration – two years
• Minimum deposit – 25%
• Mortgage fee – £999

Add immediate family members to your application to boost your borrowing power. Everyone named on the mortgage is liable for the debt but the extra applicants are not named as owners of the property. Overpayments of 20% a year are allowed penalty free.

Barclays – Family Springboard

• Rate – 3.7%
• Type – fixed
• Duration – five years
• Minimum deposit – 0%
• Mortgage fee – £0

Family Springboard is a guarantor mortgage. Family or friends must deposit the equivalent of 10% of the purchase price of your property into a Barclays savings account which is locked away for five years. If you keep up to date with your payments for five years, your helpers get their savings back with interest. A 35-year mortgage term is available. Early repayment charges apply.

Image credit: Future PLC/ Robert Sanderson

How to find the best first-time buyer mortgage rates

You can search online for the best first-time buyer mortgage rates using a price comparison website. By submitting basic details such as your annual salary, credit commitments and the value of your deposit you’ll find out how much you can spend on a house and which lenders are offering the cheapest deals.

You can also use an online mortgage broker. After completing an online questionnaire and a credit check you’ll be sent a list of mortgage deals with the cheapest rates tailored to your circumstances.

Or you can ask a traditional mortgage broker to search for the best deals on your behalf. After a phone call or face-to-face interview they will select the best deals for your circumstances rather than just the lowest rates.

The post Best first time buyer mortgages on offer: February 2022 appeared first on Ideal Home.

Installing external wall insulation (EWI) can be a great solution for keeping your home warmer, as well as helping to lower energy bills and improve sustainability credentials. And while most installations go without a hitch and problems are rare, there are some elements to retrofitting EWI that could cause complications. so what can go wrong? We outline the possible external wall insulation problems to be aware of.

External wall insulation problems

‘If you put external wall insulation on the outside of a house then you will be getting a thermal upgrade, but remember that these buildings were not originally designed to have it,’ says Will Kirkman, Managing Director at Ecomerchant. The secret to making sure your existing property will cope with retrofitted EWI comes down to thorough research alongside an experienced and proven installer.

Here are five external wall insulation problems to avoid so you can ensure success.

1. Moisture build-up inside the house

Traditionally built properties were designed to breathe in a way that allowed water vapour to escape through the walls. Wrapping this kind of house with insulation will cut down draughts, which should be a positive thing. But if it’s done poorly, this could also reduce ventilation and air movement, and may even form a barrier that locks moisture in the living spaces. The long-term result: damp and mould.

Image credit: Future PLC/ Liam Clarke

‘Before you make any changes to a property, you need to understand the balance of how you use and heat it, and how that will change once you’ve adding insulation. Things can get worse if a house is shifted out of balance,’ says Will Kirkman at Ecomerchant.

It might be that additional ventilation needs to be added to the house to help keep things in balance. Using vapour-open insulation materials that preserve the breathability of the building fabric is a great solution – namely natural products such as wood fibre. ‘Vapour open before must be vapour open after,’ says Will Kirkman. An expert with a proven track record of working with your building type will be able to advise on the best solution for your unique home. 

2. The wrong wall finish

Following on from the above point, if you’re upgrading an older property with EWI, then it’s not just the insulation that needs to stay vapour-open. There’s no point investing in wood fibre and then covering it over with an inappropriate material like conventional sand-and-cement render. Lime render is a breathable option that could suit this kind of external wall insulation project. Remember: every layer added to the wall should complement the others.

Sometimes modern insulation products and external finishes can be the right solution, even for heritage walls. But this needs extremely careful design by an experienced specialist, as it might involve changing the wall from a breathable wall to a non-permeable wall. Consider cavity wall insulation to provide the best insulation for your home.

3. Planning permission challenges for EWI

Image credit: Future PLC/ Douglas Gibb

Even though adding external wall insulation to a house involves making changes to the external appearance of the building, it does generally fall within permitted development (PD). This means you don’t always need to apply for formal planning permission to add EWI to your house. However, PD rules are not applicable for every home. For instance, they don’t apply in locations where there are planning restrictions, such as conservation areas or listed buildings. 

EWI is generally installed to improve energy performance in solid wall homes, which are more common in traditionally-built, pre-1920 houses. This kind of property may have heritage value, so the local planners might not be keen for you to change their appearance. 

The best thing to do is check that an external wall insulation installation is allowed . Going ahead without such confirmation could result in costly fines or even a removal order. Pre-application advice is one option; or you can apply for a lawful development certificate. If it turns out that you can’t install EWI, then internal insulation could be your best bet.

4. Difficulty insulating around windows and doors

Image credit: Alamy Stock Photo

The frames and reveals at window and doors can pose a challenge for external wall insulation. Leave them uninsulated, and you’ll be creating cold bridges. As the name suggests, these provide a pathway for useful warmth inside the home to escape across the insulated envelope. This can drastically reduce your newly insulated home’s energy efficiency.

Gaps in insulation will also lead to drastic temperature differentials, which can cause condensation to form where warm internal air hits the cold section of wall – ultimately leading to damp and mould issues.

The problem is that window and door frames in traditional homes can be quite narrow. This makes it difficult to treat the reveals (the recessed side walls that join a window/door to the main facade) with standard external wall insulation.

You could switch to super-thin insulation for your property’s window and door reveals, which can achieve the desired performance in profiles as slim as 10mm. The right solution for your home will be decided during the pre-installation survey.

5. Installation mistakes

Image credit: Future PLC

All the above underline the importance of employing an experienced company to design and install the right external wall insulation for your property. 

There are lots of avoidable problems that you could face if you use an inexperienced installer. Such as incorrect fixings used to hold the insulation in place, issues around the depth of roof overhangs and more. Remember that your property is unique and needs a thorough assessment before any work is done. This will ensure your external wall insulation works as it should and you can reap the benefits of a cosy, efficient home. 

‘Issues with retrofit insulation are extremely uncommon and installers approved by industry bodies have to install approved systems to industry technical best practice in order to be issued with a guarantee, which will protect the homeowner,’ says Nigel Donohue, CEO at the Insulation Assurance Authority. The IAA has a list of regional approved installers on its website.

The post External wall insulation problems – what can go wrong? appeared first on Ideal Home.

Deep fat fryers might have fallen out of favour over the last few years, giving way to the ever-popular air fryer, but air fryers can’t recreate everything you can make in a deep fat fryer. Whether you’re looking to perfect your homemade doughnut recipe or make scotch eggs from scratch, a deep fat fryer is still an essential bit of kit. Anything with a wet batter like beer-battered fish or tempura vegetables needs to be deep-fried, and a deep fat fryer is much easier and safer than doing this in a saucepan on the hob, and takes a role that even the best air fryer can’t fill.

Controlling the temperature of the oil is crucial when deep frying and has a massive impact on the colour and crispness of the foods you’re cooking. It’s difficult to maintain steady oil temperatures if you attempt to deep fry on the hob, however, deep fat fryers have inbuilt thermostats, so you can set the temperature dial and then forget about it.

Most deep fat fryers have clearly defined maximum lines for oil, so there’s no danger you’ll add too much. They come with frying baskets for easy food removal and draining. And with filters in the lids, they’re usually designed to minimise that dreaded, lingering, deep fried aroma that can be so off-putting. All the fryers we reviewed had viewing windows, but they all fogged up with condensation when cooking chips.

What’s the best deep fat fryer?

We liked the De’Longhi Traditional Deep Fryer, it’s the easiest to empty and clean and the lid locks in smells. It also has the largest capacity of all the fryers in this guide, but it doesn’t come cheap. If you’re looking for a more budget-friendly fryer, the Russell Hobbs 2.5 Litre Deep Fryer is a great choice, it’s compact and inexpensive, but it’s much trickier to empty.

1. De’Longhi Traditional Deep Fryer

Best premium deep fat fryer

Oil capacity: 2.4 litres
Food capacity: 1.5kg
Temperature range: 150oC – 190oC
Filter in lid: yes

Reasons to buy:
· Easy clean system
· Dishwasher safe lid
· Large capacity
· Handle folds down during frying

Reasons to avoid:
· Expensive
· Narrow range of temperatures available

This De’Longhi deep fat fryer is a pricey option, but with a neat, streamlined appearance and lots of useful features, it’s a great choice. The easy-clean system makes draining the oil a doddle, and the lid can be removed and washed in the dishwasher along with the frying basket. So the only cleaning you really need to do is wipe out the inside with kitchen roll, it’s easy.

The lid clicks shut, and the large filter helps contain the frying smells. It opens at the touch of a button, but we noticed the fryer rocked slightly as the lid swung back.

There’s enough space in the basket to fry four portions of chips and although our chips took a couple of minutes longer to fry than in some of the others, the results were still delicious. If your budget can stretch to it, this is a good all-rounder.

Ideal Home rated 5 out of 5 stars

2. Lakeland 3 Litre Electric Deep Fat Fryer

Best deep fat fryer with a timer

Oil capacity: 3 litres
Food capacity: 700g
Temperature range: 130oC – 190oC
Filter in lid: yes

Reasons to buy:
· Timer with auto shut-off function
· Control panel and element removable for cleaning

Reasons to avoid:
· Temperatures on dial shown in 20oC increments
· Small food capacity
· Lid isn’t hinged

This traditional rectangular shaped commercial-style fryer doesn’t take up too much space on the worktop. We love the timer which can be set for up to 30 minutes and at the end, it’ll automatically switch the fryer off, a great safety feature for the forgetful cook. Alternatively, you can flick the timer to the ‘stay on’ position if you’d rather not use it.

We would have preferred temperature markings on the dial to be every 10oC to take out the guesswork when setting it. Having said that, it was fast to preheat, and our chips fried nicely. The lid clicks into place but doesn’t completely seal the fryer, so some steam and smells can escape, meaning it’s best used near an extractor fan.

For cleaning, the control panel that’s attached to the element can be removed and then everything else can be washed in warm soapy water. But to drain the oil, you’ll have to lift the container and tip it out, which can be messy.

Ideal Home rated 4 out of 5 stars

3. Russell Hobbs 2.5 Litre Deep Fryer

Best budget deep fat fryer

Oil capacity: 2.5 litres
Food capacity: 1kg
Temperature range: 80oC – 190oC
Filter in lid: yes

Reasons to buy:
· Wide temperature range
· Good capacity
· Large viewing window
· Removable lid

Reasons to avoid:
· Tricky to empty

With a wallet-friendly price tag, this Russell Hobbs deep fat fryer is also compact, but it still has space for 1kg of food. Despite the wide 80oC – 190oC temperature range, the dial only has markings for 150oC, 170oC and 190oC so setting any other temperature requires a bit of guesswork.

The hinged lid is removable to make cleaning and emptying easier, but to empty out the oil you have to lift the whole fryer and tip it out, which is an awkward process that’s prone to spillages.

It fried our chips nicely and the carbon odour filter helps keep frying smells at bay. We like that the basket handle folds down when the basket is lowered into the oil, this keeps it neat and avoids the risk of catching it as you walk by. Overall, for the price, you can’t go too far wrong with this fryer.

Ideal Home rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

4. Swan 3 Litre Stainless Steel Fryer with Viewing Window

Best deep fryer for easy access

Oil capacity: 3 litres
Food capacity: 1kg
Temperature range: 130oC – 190oC
Filter in lid: yes

Reasons to buy:
· Can shake basket without removing lid
· Control panel and element removable for cleaning

Reasons to avoid:
· Lid doesn’t contain frying smells

This Swan deep fat fryer doesn’t have a hinged or locking lid, the metal lid simply rests on top giving quick and easy access. So if you like to watch over your food as it fries, or you fry foods that need regular turning, this one is a good option.

Even when the lid is in position you can still give the basket a good shake. The downside is that it doesn’t seal in any of the smells, so it can leave your kitchen with a deep-fried odour in the air.

We made chips that were pleasingly golden on the outside and fluffy in the centre. The temperature dial displays a good range of temperatures and we found it easy to use. To clean it though, you have to lift out the tank and tip the oil out, but once you’ve done that everything apart from the control panel and element can be washed in the sink with warm soapy water.

Ideal Home rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

5. Progress EK2969P Compact Deep Fat Fryer

Best deep fryer for single portions

Oil capacity: 0.7 litre
Temperature range: 150oC – 190oC
Filter in lid: yes

Reasons to buy:
· Space saving fryer
· Inexpensive
· Doesn’t require much oil

Reasons to avoid:
· Very small capacity
· Awkward to empty
· Easy to over fill
· Not very sturdy

This tiny fryer is one of the smallest we’ve ever seen, it only has space for 700ml of oil and you can just about fry an individual portion of chips in the little basket as long as you’re not feeling too greedy. It works like any other deep fat fryer, it’s just in miniature, perfect for single person households or for people who only want to fry very small portions, like calamari for a starter. The tiny size makes it easy to store, plus there’s not much oil to deal with every time you empty and fill it.

As there’s just a small amount of oil, it heats up fast. Thicker chips didn’t cook as well as thinner chips and for best results, you have to be careful not to overfill it.

Removing the oil involves lifting and tipping the whole fryer which is awkward, but considering its size and the amount of oil, it isn’t heavy. The small frying basket can be washed in warm soapy water but nothing else is removable, so can only be wiped clean.

Ideal Home rated 3 out of 5 stars

How we tested the best deep fat fryers

What better way to try out deep fat fryers than to make home-made chips? We timed how quickly the oil pre-heated as well as how fast the chips cooked. We assessed how fluffy the chips were on the inside, as well as the colour and whether they were excessively oily.

It was a tough job eating all those freshly cooked chips, but someone had to do it! Sadly, we also had to empty and clean all the fryers, which was less fun, but meant we could assess which ones were trickier to clean.

The post Best deep fat fryer 2022: ditch the chip shop with our top five fryers appeared first on Ideal Home.