Martin Lewis issues six-month warning to anyone who owns a house

The BBC Sounds and ITV star spoke out, saying it is "crucial" not to wait until the last minute, while chatting to a mortgage broker and co-host Adrian Chiles on this week's episode.

Martin Lewis has explained exact time to find a new mortgage deal. The BBC Sounds and ITV star spoke out, saying it is "crucial" not to wait until the last minute, while chatting to a mortgage broker and co-host Adrian Chiles on this week's episode.

Mr Lewis says the sweet spot is acting six months early when their mortgage contracts are due to end. Chatting to Monty, a mortgage broker, the Money Saving Expert told Adrian and the property expert the “crucial” nature of these 6 months.

He said: “If you don’t know when your rate ends, go get your diary out right now, find out when it ends and put a marker 6 months before that says: ‘Mortgage time, start sorting it now’.” Monty explained: “We would continue to review the market up until around about 4 weeks before you’re actually due to complete.

READ MORE Martin Lewis urges people who have a mortgage to complete 'must do' task

"You can change even if you, in principle, lock into a rate now.” He said: “If you are worried about rates changing then potentially you can lock in now.” Martin advised listeners to check that the fix they lock into at the 6 month mark doesn’t have “a big penalty or fee to get out of later”.

He continued: “If a better deal comes along, ditch this rate. It might cost you a small admin fee to do so but it’s small in the big scheme of things and move to the cheaper deal.” Andrew said that although a change is expected it likely won’t “massively” change the market.

He explained: “Again it depends. A lot of this is already baked in.” Once you know what mortgage you want, whether you're going for a fixed, variable, discount or specialist mortgage, you need to start looking at what rates you can get. This will depend on the size of your deposit and the value of the property – the bigger your deposit compared to the value of the property (known as 'loan to value'), the better rates you'll be able to get.