Made my first offer for a flat

[DodgyAgent]

Yes, but scale it up

Or in ATW's case, down

[AtW]

you should be able to pay it off within ten years or so

I am planning to pay it off much quicker

[PAH]

I don't know where you got from - 15% already gets low rate in the building society that in principle approved mortgage amounts necessary to buy the place.

Maybe prices have dropped ~15% already so they can relax the minimum deposit requirements accordingly.

It certainly doesn't seem long ago that 60% to 70% loan to value (LTV) was the max most were willing to lend.

Maybe those offering significantly better deals (wasn't there at least one offering 100% mortgages recently?) are trying to cash in on the cheap money in the system to buy assetts, as it's the bank that owns the house until you pay for it.

So really they're just pulling a BTL number on you with the difference that you become the owner once you've paid enough for it (traditionally twice the initial purchase price when interest rates were historically average), but also inherit any losses if the property drops into negative equity. It's only when the property experiences significant capital gains that the buyer comes out a winner.

But as we all need to have a roof over our heads there's more to it than pure financial gain.