Buying a house? These are the mortgage rates you want!

John Fitzsimons hunts out the mortgage rates which should be top of your wish-list if you're about to buy a property.

It's not quite as depressing writing about the housing market as it was at the start of the year. According to the latest figures from Halifax, house prices went up for a fifth straight month in November, with prices up 4.2% since the start of the year.

And now Moneyfacts, the mortgage information firm, has revealed a healthy increase in the number of mortgage deals available since Bank Base Rate first fell to 0.5%, from 1,209 to 1,624.

While there are more mortgages to choose from, are they any good? Here's my guide to the best mortgages around, no matter what your circumstances are!

For those with a small deposit

While things have certainly improved over the last few months, if you only have a small deposit at your disposal you still don't exactly have a huge number of choices. However, the products on offer are improving. Remember though that if you want the security of a longer-term deal, at the moment you are going to be paying a premium for it.

The table below covers my favourite mortgages for those a deposit of 20% or less.

Provider	Mortgage type	Loan-to-value	Interest rate	Product fee
Newcastle Building Society	Two-year base rate tracker	80%	2.49% (Bank Base Rate + 1.99%)	£1,094
Newcastle Building Society	Two-year fixed	80%	3.65%	£894
Yorkshire Building Society	Three-year fixed	85%	5.84%	£0
Alliance & Leicester	Two-year tracker	85%	3.89% (Base Rate + 3.39%)	2% of the advance
Nationwide Building Society	Two-year tracker	90%	4.63% (Base rate + 4.13%)	£995
Chorley & District Building Society	Two-year fixed	90%	4.99%	£145 plus 0.75% of your advance

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While these deals are all pretty decent, they are nowhere near as good as those on offer with a larger deposit. If you need some help building up your savings, why not follow the tips in our goal Build up your savings, and you'll soon have a much healthier looking deposit!

The short-term tracker

The rates on offer start to look a lot more attractive if you have more cash to stump up initially as your deposit.

In my view, while trackers look fantastic at the moment, Bank Base Rate is only likely to go upwards, so you don't want to be on a variable rate for too long. As a result, I've limited the length of these variable deals to an absolute maximum of three years.

Provider	Mortgage type	Loan-to-value	Interest rate	Product fee
Woolwich	One-year tracker	60%	1.98% (Base Rate + 1.48%)	£999
HSBC	Two-year discounted variable	60%	2.49% (A discount of 1.45% from the HSBC variable rate)	£999
Alliance & Leicester	Two-year tracker	70%	2.59% (Base rate + 2.09%)	£1495
Abbey	Two-year tracker	70%	2.69% (Base rate + 2.19%)	£995
ING Direct	Two-year tracker	75%	2.74% (Base rate + 2.24%)	£795
Alliance & Leicester	Three-year tracker	75%	2.59% (Base rate + 2.09%)	2% of your advance

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If you do go for a short-term tracker, it's important to take advantage of the cheap monthly payments you'll face initially by overpaying, in order to build up your equity and avoid negative equity.

If falling into negative equity is a concern for you, be sure to watch this video: How to...get out of negative equity

Long-term fixed rates

I'm a big advocate of long-term fixed rates, particularly with Base Rate so low. Chances are, in a couple of years you won't be able to get your hands on such cheap long-term deals, so I reckon it's well worth going with a longer-term deal.

These are my favourite deals of at least five years, across a range of different loan-to-values.

Provider	Mortgage type	Loan-to-value	Interest rate	Product fee
HSBC	Five-year fixed	60%	4.95%	£999
Leeds Building Society	Five-year fixed	75%	4.75%	£999 for loans of upto £500,000. £199 + 1% of advance for loans more than £500,000
Newcastle Building Society	Five-year fixed	80%	4.89%	£588
Skipton Building Society	Seven-year fixed	75%	5.94%	£895
Britannia Building Society	Ten-year fixed rate	60%	5.49%	£599
Chelsea Building Society	Ten-year fixed rate	75%	5.69%	£995

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The Brit favourite - short-term fixes

No matter how sensible it might be to fix for the long-term, historically a Brit's favourite type of mortgage is a short-term fixed rate, allowing them to remortgage every couple of years. And it's in this area where the lenders have begun competing for business again, with frequent rate cuts in recent weeks.

Below are the most competitive two-year deals around - you won't find a better deal if you're after a short-term fixed rate!

Provider	Mortgage type	Loan-to-value	Interest rate	Product fee
Leeds Building Society	Two-year fixed	65%	2.99%	£199
Alliance & Leicester	Two-year fixed	70%	3.15%	2% of the advance
Yorkshire Building Society	Two-year fixed	75%	3.59%	£195
Newcastle Building Society	Two-year fixed	80%	3.65%	£994

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Get help from lovemoney.com

If you are in the process of buying a home, there's a range of different ways lovemoney.com can help!

First off, why not try some of the hints and tips in our goal: Cut your mortgage costs and pay off your mortgage early

Next, have a watch of this video: The best three-year tracker mortgage around

And finally, if you have some mortgage related questions that need resolving, why not see if your fellow lovemoney.com readers can help in our Q&A section.

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At lovemoney.com, you can research all the best deals yourself using our online mortgage service, or speak directly to a whole-of-market, fee-free lovemoney.com broker. Call 0800 804 4045 or email mortgages@lovemoney.com for more help.

This article aims to give information, not advice. Always do your own research and/or seek out advice from an FSA-regulated broker (such as one of our brokers here at lovemoney.com), before acting on anything contained in this article.

Finally, we tend to only give the initial rate of a deal in our articles, but any deal which lasts for a shorter period than your mortgage term will revert to the lender's standard variable rate when the deal ends. Before you take out a deal, you should always try to find out from your lender what its standard variable rate is and how it will be determined in the future. Make sure you take all this information into account when comparing different deals.

More: Boost your property's value by £20,000 | Is it safe to stay on SVR?