It is always important to get the best mortgage deal, but even in the current climate there is a considerable number to choose from. Advice can be obtained from a number of areas, including tied advisers who can only recommend mortgages from their own bank or building society, and Independent Financial Advisers who can look at the whole market and recommend the most appropriate mortgage from any lender for your circumstances.

Mortgages have many different features, but I am going to consider the options of a fixed rate or a tracker mortgage.

A fixed rate mortgage is just that, the interest rate is fixed for a period, which can vary between one and 10 years. This means that monthly payments are fixed whether interest rates go up or down. This is very useful for budgeting purposes as you can be confident your payments will not change for that period.

A tracker mortgage is directly related to the Bank of England base rate. The amount you pay each month can vary as interest rates go up or down. Due to the current historically low base rate, monthly payments have come right down. Unfortunately, new tracker mortgages do not offer such a good deal. Whereas in the past a typical tracker mortgage would have had an interest rate of, say, 0.5 per cent above base rate, current tracker mortgages now typically start at three per cent above base.

The question now is, which type do you go for? Even the experts have difficulty in predicting movements in interest rates, and how many predicted the considerable falls in interest rates over the last 12 months? However, interest rates are historically low and while technically it is possible they could go even lower, I think it most unlikely that they will. Interest rates are more likely to increase in, say, the next two to three years, if for no other reason than there is nowhere else to go.

For these reasons I am recommending to my clients that they consider a mortgage with a fixed rate of up to five years. These are generally initially more expensive then a new tracker mortgage, but in the longer term I think that tracker rates will increase and exceed these fixed rates. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that this will actually be the case, but I do think there is a strong case for considering a fixed rate mortgage.

Whichever type of mortgage you go for, do look at the charges, such as arrangement fees, booking fees, valuation fees, higher lending charges, administration, redemption administration fees, mortgage account fees etc. As a rule of thumb, the lower the interest rate the greater the total of fees. It is unrealistic to expect a first-time buyer to be able to obtain a mortgage where there are no fees, but it is very important to get the right balance between fees and lower interest rates. A good adviser will help make an informed decision.