Our home-buying tools help you plan for your first home. You can set a budget, track your deposit and follow the main steps to buying a home. Using these tools won’t affect your credit score.
This guide covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. We’ll point out where things are different in Scotland.
The information in this article isn't intended to be advice from ClearScore Technology Limited, its group companies or its affiliates. It's not a substitute for getting advice from a lawyer, financial advisor, or any other professional.
Where to find the home-buying tools
You’ll find them in Credit Health. We may also show them on your home screen if we think they could be useful for you.
Getting started
When you start, we’ll ask you 2 questions:
- How much you’ve saved for a deposit
- How much you’re planning to spend on a home
A deposit is the money you put towards the price of a home. A mortgage – a loan to buy a home – usually covers the rest.
If you haven’t started saving yet, that’s OK. Select I don’t have a deposit yet and carry on.
If we have information about your income, we’ll suggest a home budget for you based on your income and deposit. You can change it at any time. If you’re not sure yet, select I’m still figuring it out.
The timeline will show you the steps that match the address on your ClearScore account.
If you’re based in England, Wales or Northern Ireland and you’re buying a property in Scotland, make sure you select the correct option before you continue to the next steps. The property buying process is different in Scotland and the checklist will show you different steps based on the location of the property.
Your deposit and home budget
You’ll see your home budget and deposit at the top of the page. A progress bar shows how much of the home price you’ve saved, as a percentage.
We only use the amounts you give us. We don’t look at your bank or savings accounts, and we don’t update your deposit for you.
To update your deposit or budget:
- Select Update
- Enter your new amounts
- Select Save changes
Deposit milestones
As your deposit grows, we’ll show you a message at each milestone. These explain how lenders may see your deposit. A lender is a bank or company that lends money.
- 5% – this is the smallest deposit most lenders accept
- 10% to 15% – this can give you more mortgage options, and you may see lower interest rates
- 20% or more – many lenders see this as a strong position, and you may have access to better rates
An interest rate is what a lender charges you to borrow money. It’s shown as a percentage.
Your home-buying timeline
Your timeline shows the main steps to buying a home. Select a step to read more about it and open our guides.
We show the steps that match the address on your ClearScore account.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Save for a deposit
- Get a mortgage in principle
- Find a property to buy
- Get the right people to help you
- Apply for your mortgage
- Complete your purchase
Scotland
- Save for a deposit
- Get a mortgage in principle
- Get the right people to help you
- Find a property to buy
- Apply for your mortgage
- Complete your purchase
In Scotland, you usually need a solicitor in place before you make an offer on a home. A solicitor is a legal professional who handles the legal side of buying. That’s why this step comes earlier.
What some of the steps mean
Mortgage in principle – an estimate of how much a lender might let you borrow. It shows sellers you’re ready to buy. It isn’t a mortgage offer, and getting one through ClearScore won’t affect your credit score.
Getting the right people to help you – this usually means a solicitor or conveyancer to handle the legal work, and you may also choose to speak to a mortgage broker. A mortgage broker is a specialist who helps you compare mortgages.
Ticking off your steps
Some steps tick themselves:
- Your deposit step ticks when your deposit reaches 5%
- Your mortgage in principle step ticks when you get one through ClearScore
You can tick the other steps yourself as you go. If you got a mortgage in principle somewhere else, you can tick that step too. This is your own checklist, so we don’t check that you’ve finished each step.
When you finish the last step, your home-buying plan closes. Once your new mortgage shows on your credit report, we’ll let you know. You can then use our homeowner tools to keep track of your mortgage and your home’s value.
Working out what you could afford
Our mortgage calculator gives you an idea of the home budget you could afford.
We start by estimating your home budget at 4.5 times your income, plus your deposit. This is based on the rules many UK mortgage lenders use.
We’ll ask you for:
- Your household income
- Your deposit
- Whether you’re buying with someone else
- Your mortgage term – how many years you’ll take to pay back the mortgage
We’ll then show you:
- An estimated home budget
- How much you’d borrow
- An estimated monthly payment
- How much of your monthly income before tax would go on your mortgage
We describe your monthly payment based on how much of your income before tax it uses:
- Comfortable – 25% or less
- Manageable – 26% to 35%
- Tight – 36% to 45%
- Potentially unaffordable – 46% or more
You can change the property price, deposit and mortgage term to see how they affect each other. A longer term lowers your monthly payments, but you’ll pay more interest overall. A shorter term means higher monthly payments, but you may pay less interest overall.
If you like the new figures, you can save them as your home budget.
These results are estimates. They aren’t a mortgage offer, and each lender makes its own decision.
Other tools you can use
In the home-buying section, you’ll also find:
- Latest mortgage rates – see rates from lenders across the market
- Report your rent – see how your rent payments can show on your credit report
- Connect with a mortgage expert – speak to a mortgage broker about your options
- Guides and videos – read more about each stage of buying a home
Good to know
- All amounts in these tools are estimates based on what you tell us.
- We can’t give financial advice. A mortgage broker can talk to you about your own situation.
- Our team can explain how the tools work. Contact us through the chat on this page.
If your plans change
If you’re no longer planning to buy a home, you can remove your plan:
- Scroll to the bottom of the home-buying page
- Select No longer planning to buy a home?
- Select Remove progress
This deletes your budget, tracked savings and completed steps. You’ll also stop getting home-buying updates. You can start again from Credit Health at any time.