Essential questions

Before choosing a property loan you must ask yourself and compare the features of a number of loans. Why not draw up a table of comparison?

  Is the loan at a fixed or variable rate?
 Is the loan flexible?
 What is the loan duration, and what guarantees are required (mortgage, credit guarantee)?
 Does it entitle you to APL (personal housing assistance) or housing benefit?
 What about additional costs (administrative fee, cost of the mortgage or credit guarantee, cost of death and disability insurance and insurance against unemployment).
 Work out the total actual cost (including all these additional costs as well as the interest) and ask about options for early repayment (with or without a penalty).

For variable rate loans you should also compare

 the rate (EURIBOR) and the margin used by the lender to calculate the interest rate: in many cases the first year's rate is based on the "base rate", and the second year's rate may differ considerably to compensate for this.
 the frequency with which rates are revised,
 the effect of variations in the rate on the monthly repayment sum, loan duration or both;
 is there a ceiling to the variation, and if so at what rate; is it a capped loan (a revisable loan at a rate guaranteed not to be above a certain %, set at the outset)?
 is it possible to switch to a fixed rate at any time? Is the rate fixed, and are there any conditions and penalties?