Our step-by-step guide to buying your first home

Look at your income, or what you get paid, against your outgoings like bills, regular spend and other debts to work out how much money you'd have left each month.

Ask yourself if you have enough to cover a monthly mortgage payment.

You'll also need to consider other extra costs when buying a home like mortgage product fees, legal fees, property surveys, stamp duty and home moving companies.

You can check out stamp duty costs and rules on the Gov.uk website (opens in a new window).

We can offer different ways to help you. Borrow up to 20% more on pre-owned properties with our Helping Hand mortgage. Or you might be able to get a mortgage through an Affordable home scheme.  Conditions apply.

The size of your deposit affects how much of a mortgage loan you’ll need. For most first time buyer mortgages, you need a deposit of at least 5% of the price of the property you want to buy.

We’re the largest mortgage provider to offer 95% Loan to Value (LTV) mortgages without using the Government’s mortgage guarantee scheme.

The bigger the deposit, the better access you’ll have to lower rates, and lower monthly payments.

Your deposit may have been given to you as a gift.

When you apply for a mortgage with us, we ask you where your deposit is coming from, for example, your own savings or if a relative has given it to you as a gift.

For gifted deposits over £10,000 you’ll need to fill in a form as part of our application process.

After the exciting time of finding your dream home and having your offer accepted, it’s time to apply for a full mortgage with us.

You need to get a Decision in Principle with us first before you can apply for a full mortgage.

When you are ready to apply for your mortgage, you will need to call us to book a free meeting with one of our mortgage advisers. One of our mortgage advisers will help you through the application process and give advice on which mortgage will best meet your needs.  

Call us on 0345 609 25 30 Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Saturday, 8.30am to 4pm. Closed Sundays and bank holidays.

You can choose to have a meeting over the phone, or video call.

They’ll also help you to understand what information and documents you'll need to provide when applying, including what you need if you’re self-employed or a contractor. 

If you apply with advice, our mortgage advisers will show you rate options available based on your financial position. They’ll also explain the mortgage fees.

If you apply without advice online, you’ll be able to see and choose from our mortgage rates including the fee information, during your online application.

Once you've received your mortgage offer in the post, you’re almost there before the mortgage term begins and the house is yours.  

There’ll be contract paperwork from us that you’ll need to read, check everything is correct and sign.

You’ll need to have building insurance in place from your completion date. It covers you financially for damage to your home.

At the end of your mortgage application, we’ll provide you with the option to get a quote for Nationwide home insurance but you can look to get a quote from another provider if you prefer. 

If you decide to get your home insurance with us, you can choose to get a quote for:

• buildings insurance
• contents insurance, or
• combined buildings and contents insurance.

You should also consider protection for you and your family should the worst happen.

When the legal work is finished and contracts are signed, your solicitor will exchange them with the seller’s solicitor, pay your deposit and agree the completion date.

There is normally a transfer fee charged by your solicitor to send the seller the deposit money.

We’ll then send you a text message as soon as we receive a date for the mortgage funds to be sent. This may be a few days before you complete the purchase, to make sure the money is ready.

We'll only contact you by text if you have given us permission to do so.

On completion day, your seller receives the money from your solicitor, and you'll get the keys to your new home from your estate agent.

On or after your completion date, you can see how much your first mortgage payment will be and when it will be taken by logging in to Mortgage Manager (opens in a new window).

We send this information to you in a letter as well. You should get it 5 to 7 working days after your completion date.

Your first payment will usually be more than your regular monthly payment. This is because it includes interest for the days between the date you moved in and the end of that month, plus your standard monthly payment for the following month.

Watch our video that takes you through the process of buying a house.