Armed forces mortgages should be simple. You have one of the most secure jobs in the country, a clear pay scale and a government scheme that lends you a deposit interest free. The trouble is that military life does not look like a normal application form. You might be in service accommodation with no bills in your name, posted to Cyprus with a BFPO address, or buying a house in Hampshire you will not move into for two years. Bank scoring systems get twitchy about all of that. We do not.
We are a whole of market broker based in Romsey, a short drive from Marchwood, Tidworth, Aldershot and Portsmouth, and we arrange mortgages for serving and former members of the British Army, Royal Navy, Royal Marines and Royal Air Force across the UK. That includes FHTB applications, buying while deployed, letting a home during a posting and the first mortgage after you leave.
Most of our advice is fee free. On over 90% of cases the lender pays us when your mortgage completes. Mortgages under £100,000 carry a £299 fee, and complex or adverse credit cases can carry a fee of up to £995. We will always tell you before you commit to anything.
Fill in the form and we will call you back at a time that suits your duties, or read on for how the scheme works, how lenders treat the loan and your pay, and what to have ready.
Forces Help to Buy (FHTB) is the most useful thing the Ministry of Defence does for service personnel who want their own home. It started as a pilot in 2014 and became an enduring policy on 1 January 2023, so it is not going anywhere. Here is what it gives you, and the bits people get wrong.
What you can borrow
An interest free loan of up to 50% of your annual salary, to a maximum of £25,000. Salary includes specialist pay, so a corporal on around £36,000 could borrow about £18,000 and anyone on £50,000 or more hits the cap. Government figures put the average advance at roughly £16,000, with more than 35,000 payments made since 2014.
Who is eligible
Regular service personnel who have completed the pre requisite length of service (normally 12 months from enlistment and Phase 1 training), have more than six months of service remaining when they apply and meet the right medical categories. Reservists and the Military Provost Guard Service are not covered. Exceptions can be made on medical or special personal grounds, so ask rather than assume.
What it can be used for
Buying a first home, moving because of a new assignment or a change in family needs, and in some cases extending a home you already own. The money can go towards your deposit and buying costs such as solicitor and estate agent fees. It works alongside Shared Ownership and the old Help to Buy equity loan scheme, and it can be used for a self build.
How the application process works
You apply on JPA (Joint Personnel Administration) using the FHTB self service application, at least six weeks before completion. There is a first stage approval, then a second stage once you have a mortgage offer and a completion date. We time the mortgage so the two line up, because an offer that expires while you wait on the second stage is a pain nobody needs.
How you pay it back
Through your salary over up to 10 years, interest free, so a full £25,000 advance is about £208 a month. Leave before it is cleared and the balance comes out of your terminal benefits. Your lender will factor the repayment into what they lend you, which is covered below.
The small print
HMRC treats FHTB as a beneficial loan, so combined with other beneficial loans over £10,000 in a tax year it can create a small tax charge through your pay. You are expected to live in the home. If a later posting takes you more than 50 miles away you can usually apply to let it with your commanding officer's approval, which is where buy to let and consent to let questions start. The rules are on GOV.UK and can change, so check the latest information.
This is the bit that trips people up. The FHTB loan is a deposit and a debt at the same time, and every lender handles that slightly differently. Some do not accept it as a deposit at all. Get the lender wrong and you lose a few weeks and a hard credit search.
FHTB as your deposit. Several major mortgage lenders accept Forces Help to Buy as the whole deposit, others want it topped up with your own savings, and a few will not take a borrowed deposit at all. Because the MOD only confirms the amount after your mortgage offer, the lender keys it as savings and takes your word for the figure, so we need to be sure of your eligibility before we apply.
FHTB as a commitment. The same lenders then count the repayment against you. The common approach is to divide the loan by 120 and treat that as a monthly credit commitment, so £25,000 costs about £208 a month of affordability, which can trim maximum borrowing by roughly £10,000 to £25,000 depending on the lender's model. A bigger deposit usually still leaves you better off, but we run both versions so you can see the numbers.
Basic pay and X Factor. Your published pay scale already includes the 14.5% X Factor, and it is pensionable, so lenders treat it as guaranteed income. Rank based pay scales are public and rise predictably, which underwriters like. If a promotion is due within a few months, some lenders will use the new figure with a letter from your unit.
Allowances and specialist pay. Recruitment and retention payments (flying pay, submarine pay, diving pay and similar) are regular and often counted at 50% to 100%. Longer Separation Allowance and Operational Allowance are tied to specific deployments, so many lenders exclude them or want two years of P60s showing they recur. JPA statements help us evidence what is consistent.
Credit history and BFPO addresses. Time in barracks, quarters or overseas often means a thin credit file and gaps in your electoral roll history. Some lenders, first direct for example, say they accept BFPO addresses like any other address, while others reject them outright, so lender choice matters here. We check your credit report before we approach anyone, so there are no surprises.
Reservists and dual income. Reservists cannot use FHTB, but bounty and training pay can count as secondary income with the right lender, on top of a civilian salary. A partner's income can be added on a joint application, and where family want to help without being on the deeds, a joint borrower sole proprietor mortgage or a guarantor mortgage may be an option.
Enter your pay the way a lender sees it: basic pay including X Factor first, regular allowances or specialist pay second, then choose how much of that a lender might count. Add your own savings and the FHTB amount you expect. The calculator adds the loan to your deposit, deducts its monthly repayment from your affordability and shows what common income multiples mean in pounds, plus an illustrative monthly payment.
For illustration only. This is not financial advice or a lending decision. Lenders treat military pay, allowances and the FHTB loan differently, apply their own affordability checks and stress test the interest rate, so the real figure could be higher or lower. Speak to us for a personalised assessment.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
Here is a simplified example of how the FHTB loan and the choice of lender change the outcome. The figures are for illustration only and are not a real client.
The soldier: a corporal based at Tidworth on £36,000 a year including X Factor, with four years of service and around £6,000 saved. She wants a three bed house in Ludgershall at £270,000 so her family has somewhere settled between postings.
Without Forces Help to Buy: a £6,000 deposit on £270,000 is 2.2%, so no mainstream lender would help. She would be saving for two or three more years.
With Forces Help to Buy: she can borrow 50% of salary, £18,000, interest free. Her deposit becomes £24,000, just under 9%, and the mortgage needed is £246,000. The £150 a month repayment is counted as a commitment, which cuts her maximum borrowing by about £8,500.
Lender A: would not accept a borrowed deposit, and wanted three years of UK address history, which her time in Germany broke. Declined at decision in principle.
Lender B: accepts FHTB as the full deposit, treats BFPO addresses as UK addresses and lends about 4.75 times income after the commitment. That was roughly £162,000 on her income alone, so her husband's £24,000 salary went on the application, taking the joint maximum to around £275,000.
The result: a £246,000 mortgage over 35 years, about £1,165 a month at an illustrative 4.5%, plus the £150 FHTB deduction from pay. Close to what they would have paid in rent, and the same lender allows consent to let if a posting takes them away later. Get in touch and we will run your own figures against real lender criteria.
Serving personnel rarely fit the "buy a house, live in it for 25 years" model lenders were built around. These are the situations we deal with most.
First time buyers in service accommodation
Living in the block or in SFA is cheap, which is why so many people put off buying. The catch is you build no credit footprint and no address history. Registering to vote at your quarter, keeping a phone contract and a credit card in your name, and using FHTB as your deposit gets most first time buyers across the line. If FHTB is not available to you, a 5% deposit mortgage is still an option with some lenders.
Buying a home you will not live in yet
Lots of military families buy near a future posting or the town they plan to settle in, and let it out until they get there. Most residential lenders want you in from day one. Some, including several Armed Forces Covenant signatories, may give serving personnel consent to let on a residential mortgage from the start or after a posting, without switching you to a pricier buy to let mortgage. Tell us the plan honestly and we will pick a lender that allows it.
Overseas postings and BFPO addresses
A BFPO address in Cyprus, Germany or the Falklands is not a UK address to most automated systems, so proof of address and ID checks fail before an underwriter has looked at you. We use lenders that accept BFPO addresses and forces ID, arrange certified copies through your unit or a solicitor, and handle valuations and legal work while you are away.
Deployment mid application
Deployments do not wait for completion dates. With a power of attorney or a trusted contact at home, we keep the purchase moving with the lender, the estate agent and the solicitor while you are on operations. Most of it is email, and we work around time zones and patchy comms, not office hours.
Leaving the forces and resettlement
The last two years before your exit date are tricky because lenders see a job about to end. Some are happy with a service pension plus a job offer or resettlement plan, and armed forces pensions count as guaranteed income for life. Any FHTB balance comes out of your terminal benefits, so plan the timing with us first.
Moving home on a new assignment
If you already own and a new assignment means moving, you can usually port your mortgage, let the old home with consent, or sell and buy. FHTB can sometimes be used again for a move on assignment. We look at early repayment charges, stamp duty on a second property (try our stamp duty calculator) and whether keeping the first home as a rental stacks up.
Getting documents together early is the simplest way to speed things up, especially if you are about to deploy. Lenders want full PDF downloads or originals, not screenshots.
Pay evidence: your last three months of JPA payslips and your latest P60. If you rely on allowances or specialist pay, two years of P60s so we can show they recur.
ID and address: passport or driving licence, MOD Form 90, and proof of your current address. A BFPO address can be evidenced with a letter from your unit where a lender needs it.
Bank statements: three months, showing your pay landing and normal spending. Lenders look at other debts, car finance, childcare and gambling, so tidy things up before you apply.
Forces Help to Buy: your JPA first stage approval if you have it. Most lenders do not need it up front because the MOD confirms the amount after your mortgage offer, but a copy saves time later.
Deposit evidence: statements showing your savings building up, and a gift letter if family are helping. Borrowed money other than FHTB is a problem for most lenders, so be upfront if any of the deposit is a loan.
Your service picture: length of service, exit date if you have one, and any posting that will take you away from the property. None of it stops a mortgage, but knowing it first lets us pick a lender whose criteria fit your individual circumstances.
A 20 minute call
Phone, Teams or WhatsApp, at a time that suits your duties. We talk through pay, savings, FHTB eligibility, where you want to buy and any posting on the horizon.
Credit report check
You share your credit report with us so we can see any gaps from time overseas or in quarters, and fix anything simple before a lender sees it.
Lender match
We shortlist lenders that accept FHTB, BFPO addresses and consent to let if you need it, and show you what each would lend and cost. This is where most of the value sits.
Mortgage in principle
A mortgage in principle, usually a soft search, so you can make offers with confidence and start your FHTB first stage on JPA.
Full application
We package your payslips, ID and deposit evidence properly and submit. Our team has submitted over 2,500 mortgages, so we know what underwriters ask for and answer it before they do.
Offer to keys
We chase the valuation, the solicitor and your FHTB second stage so the money lands for completion, and we stay in touch after you move in, including when your fixed rate ends.
Our office in Romsey sits in the middle of the biggest concentration of British forces in the country. We arrange mortgages nationwide, but a lot of our military clients come from these areas.
Aldershot and Farnborough: the home of the British Army. Buyers from Aldershot Garrison tend to look at Farnborough, Fleet and Church Crookham, where prices run above the national average and FHTB rarely covers a full 10% deposit on its own.
Tidworth, Bulford and Salisbury Plain: Tidworth, Ludgershall, Amesbury and Salisbury are popular with families who want a settled home while postings rotate through the plain. See our Salisbury mortgage broker page.
Portsmouth and Gosport: Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel from HMNB Portsmouth often buy in Gosport, Fareham and Havant, where sea time makes proof of address the common snag. Our Portsmouth mortgage broker page has more.
Marchwood, Southampton and the New Forest: the Sea Mounting Centre at Marchwood is ten minutes from our office. Totton, Hythe and Southampton's western suburbs are the usual choices, and we can meet in person if that suits you better than a call.
Does poor credit stop service personnel getting a mortgage?
No. A stable military job is a real positive, and specialist lenders look at defaults, CCJs and missed mortgage payments individually, though they usually want a bigger deposit and a fee may apply. Share your credit report with us first so we approach the right lender in the right order.
Can I buy a home before I have finished Phase 2 training?
You can apply as soon as you have payslips, but FHTB normally needs 12 months of service and completed Phase 1 training, and lenders like to see you past probation. Most recruits are better waiting for FHTB unless family are gifting a deposit.
Can military families use other schemes as well?
Yes. FHTB sits alongside Shared Ownership, the Lifetime ISA bonus and, for those who qualify, the First Homes discount. It cannot be used to buy a buy to let property, and buying with someone who already owns a home changes the stamp duty position, which we will check for you.
Do you charge a fee for military mortgages?
On over 90% of cases, no, the lender pays us on completion. Mortgages under £100,000 carry a £299 fee and complex or adverse credit cases can carry a fee of up to £995, always agreed with you first. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
Military buyers often fit more than one box, so these guides cover the situations that most often overlap with forces mortgages. For the official scheme rules, start with Forces Help to Buy on GOV.UK.
Speak to a fee free mortgage adviser who deals with forces applications every week. We will check your Forces Help to Buy eligibility, work out what you could borrow and match you to a lender that suits your posting.
