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Types of Mortgages

Repayment Mortgage
The most common type of mortgage is the Repayment Mortgage (or the "annuity repayment" method as it is sometimes known). Repayment mortgages are popular because they are simple to understand and straightforward to operate. Every month your repayments are made up of the amount of monthly interest due on your borrowings, together with a portion of the actual amount borrowed (principal). In the early years of the loan your repayments are mostly made up of interest. As the years progress you will pay less interest and more principal, until eventually your entire loan will be cleared.
Endowment Mortgage
Another mortgage option is the Endowment Mortgage. This is basically an interest only mortgage which is supported by an endowment policy. During the term of the mortgage you will only pay interest to the lender so the outstanding mortgage debt will remain constant throughout the mortgage term. In addition to the interest you pay to the lender you will also need to pay premiums into an endowment policy.

An endowment policy is basically a life assurance investment/savings policy which is designed to produce the mortgage amount at the end of the agreed term. Most endowment policies taken out in connection with a mortgage do not guarantee to repay the mortgage debt at the end of the mortgage term so there is a possibility that there could be a shortfall. The eventual value of the policy will depend on the performance of the fund in which your premiums are invested so poor performance could result in the maturity value being insufficient to repay the mortgage debt.
Pension Backed Mortgages
Like the Endowment mortgage Pension mortgages are interest only mortgages but this time supported by a pension plan rather than an endowment policy. As with the endowment mortgage you will pay interest only to the lender and at the same time you will pay premiums into a pension plan. This is only an option for someone who is either self employed or in non-pensionable employment.

The most common type of pension plan to be used is a personal pension plan and this will be designed to pay a tax free lump sum on retirement in addition to a monthly pension income. It is the lump sum (or part of it ) which is then used to repay the mortgage debt on retirement.

The advantage of this type of repayment method is that the pension contributions attract tax relief at the persons highest rate of tax. However, it is also important to remember that unlike an endowment mortgage, a personal pension policy does not provide automatic life assurance cover and this will need to be arranged at an additional cost.

The eventual value of the pension provided and the lump sum available will depend on the performance of the pension fund into which your premiums are invested. In other words poor performance of the fund could result in a disappointing final pension and smaller than anticipated lump sum ( equally better than expected performance will result in a larger pension ).

The tax free lump sum available under the pension plan is not available until the pension itself is taken. This means that the mortgage term needs to be run until the anticipated retirement age. If the intended retirement age is 60 and you are considering taking a pension mortgage at age 30 you will therefore be looking at a 30 year mortgage term which will result in considerably more interest being paid into that mortgage than if a 25 year term were taken. 

It should be noted that a Pep does not include any element of life assurance cover and as such this needs to be taken as a separate policy if it is required.

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