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Santander Mortgage Review: Pros, Cons & Features
Santander offers a range of mortgage options to first-time buyers, homemovers and those who are remortgaging. Learn more in our Santander mortgage review.
Santander mortgages: at a glance
Santander offers capital repayment and interest-only mortgages, as well as a range of other mortgages that include fixed-rate and tracker-rate options. Your mortgage term could be set for up to 40 years. It’s possible to apply for a Santander mortgage online, over the phone, or at a Santander branch. Customer support is available through the same channels, as well as the Santander mobile app.
Santander fixed-rate mortgages currently allow overpayments of up to 10% of your outstanding mortgage balance each year before you have to pay an early repayment charge, while there is no limit to how much you can overpay if your rate is not fixed.
Santander Mortgages
5 to 40 years
£6,000
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.
Santander mortgage pros & cons
Pros
- Capital repayment and interest-only mortgages are available with Santander.
- Santander offers mortgages at 85% LTV and over.
- There is a low minimum mortgage amount of £6,000.
- Santander provides multiple customer support options.
Cons
- Shorter mortgage terms are available elsewhere.
Santander mortgage overview
Santander is one of the largest mortgage lenders in the UK, and it offers mortgages to first-time buyers, those moving home and existing mortgage holders who are looking to remortgage. Santander also offers buy-to-let mortgages to new customers through a broker.
Santander mortgages are available for amounts of £6,000 and above, and for terms of up to 40 years. Customer support is available online, over the phone, at Santander branches or through the Santander mobile app.
| Product options | Capital repayment Interest-only Fixed-rate Tracker 85% loan-to-value or higher Family/Springboard |
| Term length | 5 – 40 years |
| Minimum loan size | £6,000 |
| 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 | 63% (as at 11 November 2024) |
Where Santander mortgages stand out
Multiple application and support options
Santander allows you to apply for a mortgage either online, over the phone or at one of its branches, and then offers the same channels as a means to access customer support, along with its mobile app.
Low minimum mortgage amount
If you’re looking for a smaller mortgage, it’s possible to get a mortgage for as little as £6,000 through Santander. By comparison, some lenders set their minimum mortgage amount as high as £25,000 or even £50,000.
Where Santander mortgages fall short
Fewer product options than some
If you’re looking for a very specific type of mortgage, it’s important to note that Santander doesn’t offer discount mortgages, offset mortgages, or green mortgages.
Shorter minimum terms are available elsewhere
If you’re looking for a relatively short mortgage term, the minimum period of five years that Santander allows may not be suitable for your needs. Some lenders allow a minimum term of one year, or have no minimum at all.
» MORE: Best mortgage lenders
Take a look at some of the other mortgage providers we review.
What types of mortgages does Santander offer?
Santander first-time buyer mortgages
Santander offers first-time buyer mortgages up to 95% loan-to-value (LTV), meaning that it’s possible to get a mortgage with a 5% deposit. One thing to note is that you can’t get a decision in principle online if your deposit is for less than 10% – you’ll need to call instead. If your family are willing to help you out financially, and you wish to use a gifted deposit, Santander may be able to help here, too.
Santander remortgages
For those who want to remortgage, Santander offers fixed-rate and tracker remortgage deals. There are some Santander remortgage deals available without a product fee, and some that offer a free valuation. You may find Santander will cover your standard legal fees or give cashback if you’re eligible.
Santander buy-to-let mortgages
Santander offers buy-to-let mortgages to new customers as long as you approach through a broker. If you’re already a Santander buy-to-let mortgage holder and your current deal is about to end, you can switch to a new one over the phone or online.
» MORE: See the latest mortgage rates
Santander mortgage features
Repayment options
Santander mortgages are available on a capital repayment or an interest-only basis. You may also be able to pay part of your mortgage as repayment and the other part as interest only, combining both.
With a repayment mortgage, the repayments you make each month go towards paying off your interest along with some of the original mortgage amount, or capital, you took out. If you make every repayment in full when you should, everything you owe should be cleared by the time you reach the end of your mortgage term.
Interest-only mortgages differ in that your monthly repayments pay off the interest that you’re being charged each month but don’t contribute anything towards paying off your original loan amount.
Instead you’ll need a repayment strategy in place that aims to pay back your loan amount when your mortgage term ends. This could be in the form of an endowment plan or other investment. Interest-only mortgages are more difficult to obtain and often come with lower LTV limits than capital and repayment mortgages.
» MORE: Interest-only vs. repayment mortgages
Mortgage rates
Santander offers fixed-rate and tracker rate mortgages. With a fixed-rate mortgage the interest rate you are charged and pay is fixed for a set period of time – perhaps for two, three or five years, or any other length of deal that Santander is currently offering. As a result, your monthly repayments won’t change for the duration of your fixed-rate deal, giving you certainty over the amount you have to pay.
At the end of your deal, you may want to remortgage to a new deal, or alternatively, you’ll automatically move onto either Santander’s standard variable rate (SVR) or its follow-on rate, depending on when you took the mortgage out. These both have the potential to rise or fall and will usually be higher than the rate you’ve just left behind.
The mortgage rate you pay, and therefore your monthly repayments, can also rise and fall if you take out a tracker mortgage with Santander. This type of mortgage automatically follows movements in the Bank of England base rate, so it’s important to work out whether you could still afford your monthly repayments if rates were to go up.
» MORE: See Santander mortgage rates
Loan-to-value ratios
Santander currently offers mortgages to 95% LTV, which means there are mortgage options available if you have a 5% deposit.
» MORE: Why your LTV is important for a mortgage
Mortgage offers
If you receive a mortgage offer from Santander, it will usually be valid for six months. During this period, the mortgage rate you’ve been offered should not change.
Making overpayments
If you have a Santander fixed-rate mortgage, the maximum you can overpay in a calendar year, running from January to December, without having to pay an early repayment charge is 10% of the mortgage balance you have outstanding.
If your Santander mortgage does not have a fixed rate, you are free to overpay by how much you like without needing to pay an early repayment charge.
Take the time to check the terms and conditions of your particular mortgage before you make additional payments to ensure you do not incur hefty Early Repayment Charges (ERCs). If you want to overpay your mortgage Santander allows borrowers to make one-off lump sum overpayments, set up regular overpayments or do a combination of both.
» MORE: Mortgage overpayment calculator
Paying off your mortgage early
You can pay off a Santander mortgage in full at any time, but there may be fees to pay, and possibly an early repayment charge, for doing so. If you’re thinking of paying off your mortgage early, you’ll need to request a settlement figure from Santander. This will show how much you need to pay to clear everything you owe, including any fees.
Porting your mortgage
If you’re moving home and want to take your current Santander mortgage with you to your new property, you can apply to Santander to port your mortgage. Be aware that you risk having to pay an early repayment charge if you’re porting a fixed-rate mortgage but want to reduce the amount you borrow.
Customer support
There is a wide range of channels through which you can approach Santander for support, including online, by phone, at Santander branches and via the Santander mobile app. There is also a chat option on the Santander website where a digital assistant can attempt to answer queries. If it cannot, and you’re signed up to use online or mobile banking, you can request to chat with a real person. If you’re not signed up to either, you’ll need to give Santander a call.
Mortgage calculators
Santander has a number of mortgage calculators on its website to help borrowers crunch numbers. These include a deposit calculator to work out how much deposit you may need, an affordability calculator that gives you an idea of how much you may be able to borrow, and a mortgage rate calculator where you’ll see an indication of the rate you could get and how much your repayments may be.
» MORE: Our mortgage calculators
Customer ratings
Santander has been awarded a customer experience rating of 63% by Fairer Finance in relation to mortgages, which means it ranks joint tenth out of the 22 lenders it reviewed. The ratings reflect how happy borrowers are with the lender, the trust that customers have in a brand, and how the lender responds to complaints. How lenders explain their products and the documents they give to customers are evaluated in terms of their clarity and simplicity.
This information from Fairer Finance was correct as of 11 November 2024.
» MORE: Do I need mortgage advice?
Santander Mortgage FAQs
If you have a good credit score, you may find it easier to get a mortgage with Santander than if you have bad credit. Santander also takes into account the amount of credit you have access to when making decisions over whether to lend. If Santander decides it doesn’t make sense for you to take on a mortgage, or the risk attached to you being offered a mortgage is unacceptable, your mortgage application will be declined.
If you applied for a Santander mortgage through an IFA or mortgage broker, it was taking on average 12 days for Santander to make a mortgage offer, as at 11 November 2024. As this is an average turnaround time, some mortgage offers may have been made faster, and some slower. The time to receive an offer may also be different if you apply for a Santander mortgage directly.
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.
Best means our ‘Best’ and is based only on what products we have aligned to our surveys, which form the basis of our reviews and ratings. This means that there will be other products on the market that we have not included in our ‘Best’ pages. Best does not mean it’s best for you, nor does it mean the ‘cheapest’.
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.
While we try to provide you with accurate information, the providers can change the terms of their products at any time, therefore it is advisable to check the terms before you proceed.
You can view our full review methodology here.