When you’ve been in the housing market for a while, you don’t want to encounter any nasty surprises. The property market is one of the sectors worst hit by the recession: it was also one of the self-same sectors whose lending and borrowing may have fuelled the extent of the credit crunch. If there have been any lessons learned – and whilst it is of course still too early to really tell – they are surely that loans, mortgages and purchases on credit should be monitored with moderation.

Whether you have rented most of your life, are a long-time home owner or a multiple-property landlord or home-owner, it is worth keeping yourself up to date with the changes in the financial world, and tailoring these changes to affect and improve the quality of your own income and expenditure.

Many people find, as their professional life goes on and children grow up and leave home, that such big alterations in lifestyle and family focus significantly alter the balance of finances within the household. For some, with the independence of any departing children relieving the parents and giving them more time – and often a lot more money (!) – it can often be a time to finally finish off paying off the mortgage. Some people choose to maintain a high workload for several years into their 60s in order to ensure both a higher pension and a completely cleared set of mortgage payments.

And there is sense in such a method: if you are earning the same wages but having to spend less and less of it on looking after all the younger members of the family, it could ease the mind to have mortgages as something ticked off the to-do list. Companies such as Alliance and Leicester, which recently became part of the Santander group alongside Abbey, will allow you to switch your mortgages between properties if you down- or up-size; and what’s more the company will allow you to alter the size of your payments to suit the changes in your financial or family circumstances. Have a look at the Alliance and Leicester website for further details of their mortgages and how to switch at your convenience.

Advertorial supplied by Alliance & Leicester