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Halifax Mortgage Review: Pros, Cons & Features
Halifax offers a wide range of mortgages to first-time buyers, homemovers and those who are remortgaging. Here’s our Halifax mortgage review.
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Halifax mortgages: at a glance
Halifax offers capital repayment and interest-only mortgages, and its mortgage range includes fixed-rate and tracker-rate options. Mortgages can be arranged for a term of between two and 40 years, with some allowing you to overpay by as much as you want and others allowing overpayments of up to 10% of your outstanding mortgage balance each year before an early repayment charge applies.
There are a number of ways you can apply for a Halifax mortgage, including over the phone, online and in person at a branch of Halifax.
Halifax Mortgages
2 to 40 years
£25,000
Capital & Interest; and Interest Only
Yes
Yes
This mortgage provider is available via our partner, London & Country Mortgages.
Think carefully before taking out any mortgage. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments.
This is our review of a lender and not the products, interest rates, fees or deal terms they offer. Many lenders also offer preferential products exclusively via brokers and intermediaries. This review does not constitute advice or recommendation.
Halifax mortgage pros & cons
Pros
- Halifax offers capital repayment and interest-only mortgages.
- Mortgages at 85% LTV and over are available.
- There is a wide range of mortgage terms, between two and 40 years.
- Halifax provides multiple customer support options.
Cons
- There are other lenders that offer smaller minimum mortgage amounts below £25,000.
Halifax mortgage overview
Halifax is part of Lloyds Banking Group, the largest mortgage lender in the UK, and offers mortgages to first-time buyers, those moving homes and those looking to remortgage. The bank also provides buy-to-let mortgages to landlords.
Halifax mortgages are available for amounts of £25,000 and above at the time of writing and for terms of between two and 40 years. Customer support is available online, over the phone, in a Halifax branch or through the Halifax mobile app.
| Product options | Capital repayment Interest-only Fixed-rate Tracker 85% loan-to-value or higher Family/Springboard Green mortgages |
| Term length | 2 to 40 years |
| Minimum loan size | £25,000 |
| Allows overpayments | Yes |
| Mortgages are portable | Yes |
| Ways to apply | Online, phone, in branch, broker |
| Customer service contact options | Online, phone, in branch, mobile app |
| Fairer Finance customer experience rating | 62% (as at 11 November 2024) |
Where Halifax mortgages stand out
Wide range of mortgage product options
Halifax offers an extensive range of mortgage options, from fixed-rate and tracker mortgages to more niche products such as Family Boost mortgages, where family members can help loved ones with their mortgage deposit, and green mortgages.
Good choice of mortgage terms
Halifax allows a mortgage term of between two and 40 years. At some other lenders we’ve reviewed the shortest term available is five years, and sometimes longer.
Multiple support options and live chat
There are a number of ways you can get in touch with Halifax, including online, over the phone, in one of its branches, and through its mobile app. Most impressive, however, is its live chat option, which gives you immediate access to a human customer service agent from the beginning – with many other lenders, the chat option involves digital assistance and automated responses, and sometimes not even the option to chat with a live person after that.
Where Halifax mortgages fall short
High minimum mortgage amount
If you want a smaller mortgage, Halifax may not be an option. Halifax’s minimum mortgage amount of £25,000 is higher than the smallest amount of £5,000, or sometimes lower, that some other lenders allow.
» MORE: Best mortgage lenders
Take a look at some of the other mortgage providers we review.
What types of mortgages does Halifax offer?
Halifax first-time buyer mortgages
Halifax first-time buyer mortgages are currently available up to 95% loan-to-value (LTV), meaning you may be able to get a mortgage with a 5% deposit. With a Family Boost mortgage, you don’t necessarily need to have a deposit at all, if your family is willing to help.
Halifax remortgages
If you’re considering remortgaging to Halifax, the bank currently says you won’t have to pay a valuation fee and that it will cover some of your basic legal fees, too. If you’re a current Halifax mortgage borrower and in the final three months of your existing deal, you won’t have to pay an early repayment charge to switch to a new Halifax mortgage.
Halifax buy-to-let mortgages
Halifax buy-to-let mortgages are available for new landlords and those who are looking to remortgage their buy-to-let property. Deals are available up to 70% LTV.
Halifax mortgage features
Repayment options
Halifax offers mortgages on a capital repayment and interest-only basis, and also potentially as a combination of both. With a repayment mortgage, the monthly repayments you make pay off your interest and some of your original loan amount, or capital. If you make all of your repayments on time and in full, then everything should be paid off at the end of your mortgage term.
Interest-only mortgages work differently because your repayments only cover the interest that you’re charged each month and won’t pay off any of your original mortgage loan amount. This can help keep repayments low but also means you must have a repayment strategy in place to provide a lump sum to pay off the full loan amount when your mortgage term ends. Endowments, stocks and shares, pensions and selling a second home are among the repayment strategies that Halifax will consider.
» MORE: Interest-only vs. repayment mortgages
Mortgage rates
Halifax offers both fixed-rate and tracker-rate mortgages. With a fixed-rate mortgage, your mortgage rate is fixed for a certain length of time. This means your monthly repayments stay the same until the end of the fixed-rate deal, at which point you can either remortgage or automatically move onto Halifax’s standard variable rate (SVR) – this can rise or fall, taking your monthly repayments with it, and is usually higher than the fixed rate you’ve just left behind.
The mortgage rate you pay, and therefore your monthly repayments, can also increase and decrease if you take out a Halifax tracker mortgage. This type of mortgage tracks movements in the Bank of England base rate, so it’s vital to think about whether your monthly repayments would still be affordable if rates were to increase.
» MORE: See current mortgage rates
Loan-to-value ratios
Halifax mortgages are currently available up to 95% LTV, which means you may be able to get a Halfiax mortgage with a 5% deposit.
» MORE: Why your LTV is important for a mortgage
Mortgage offers
If you apply for a Halifax mortgage and you receive a mortgage offer, the offer could be valid for six months. The mortgage rate you’ve been offered shouldn’t change throughout this period, no matter what may be happening generally to mortgage rates.
Making overpayments
There are some Halifax mortgages that allow unlimited overpayments without incurring a charge (so long as you don’t completely pay it all off) and some that limit overpayments to 10% of your outstanding balance each year if you want to avoid an early repayment charge (ERC). Always check the terms and conditions of your mortgage before paying extra. If you’re able to overpay on your mortgage, it may mean you can clear your mortgage debt faster and end up paying a lower amount of interest in total. A Halifax mortgage can be overpaid either by paying a lump sum or by increasing your regular monthly repayments.
» MORE: Mortgage overpayment calculator
Paying off your mortgage early
You are allowed to pay off a Halifax mortgage early, but early repayment charges are likely to apply. If you want to pay off your mortgage early in full, you’ll need to ask Halifax for a redemption statement, which will show all of the charges and fees you may need to pay.
Porting your mortgage
If you want to move to a new home and take your existing Halifax mortgage and mortgage rate with you to the new property, this may be possible if your Halifax mortgage is portable. You’ll have to check your mortgage offer letter or contact Halifax to find out for sure. Your existing and new mortgage must both be with Halifax if you want to port a mortgage. Early repayment charges may have to be paid if you want to port but borrow less.
Customer support
There are a number of ways you can contact Halifax, including by phone, online, visiting your local Halifax branch or via the Halifax mobile app. If you’re online, a virtual assistant will attempt to answer your query, but it is possible to connect with a real-life customer service representative if you type that you wish to speak to a real person.
Mortgage calculators
The Halifax website hosts a large number of mortgage calculators designed to help you in your mortgage search. These include mortgage affordability, repayment, rate change and overpayment calculators. There are also others to suit the type of borrower you are, such as a first-time buyer, a homemover, someone who is remortgaging or a landlord wanting a buy-to-let mortgage.
» MORE: Our mortgage calculators
Customer ratings
Halifax receives a customer experience rating of 62% from Fairer Finance for mortgages, a score which sees it rank joint 13th out of the 22 featured lenders it has reviewed. The ratings take into account customer satisfaction, the trust the customer has in a brand and how well the lender handles complaints. How clearly mortgage lenders explain their products and the simplicity of the documents customers must complete is also assessed.
This information from Fairer Finance was correct as of 11 November 2024.
» MORE: Do I need mortgage advice?
Halifax Mortgage FAQs
If you have a good credit score, you’re likely to stand a better chance of getting a Halifax mortgage than if your credit score is low, but you’ll also need to meet its other eligibility criteria, which typically includes things such as deposit size, income and expenditure.
Try to avoid applying for any kind of loan you’re unlikely to get, as a rejection can negatively affect your credit score.
Halifax says it can take anywhere between one and six weeks to get a mortgage, depending on whether there are any delays during the process. The initial application process you complete yourself should take no more than two hours. Making sure you supply the correct information and promptly send documents can help avoid holdups.
This is our review of a lender and not the products, interest rates, fees or deal terms they offer. Many lenders also offer preferential products exclusively via brokers and intermediaries. This review does not constitute advice or recommendation.
Review methodology
At NerdWallet UK, we base our reviews and our ‘Best’ pages on the results of surveys we undertook about what was important to people who use these products. This allows us to look at products impartially of any commercial arrangements we have and fairly rate the products on the same set of criteria.
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Our reviews may display lenders’ rates. This additional information has not been included in our evaluations but is still very important when choosing a product. Rates offered can depend on circumstances, amount and term. Always check details before proceeding with any financial product.
Product details reflect the information that was available at that time but may have changed since. We strive to give you a review on as many products as possible, but there will be products not included on the market. The review is our opinion, but it does not constitute advice, recommendation or suitability for your financial circumstances.
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