We compare 14,000+ mortgage deals from over 99 UK lenders, matching your application to the lenders most likely to accept it.
1,600+ verified reviews on Trustpilot from real clients.
Ranked among the top 10 mortgage brokers in the country.
No advice fee, no application fee, no fee on completion.
Advice held to the highest professional standards.
You pay us nothing for the advice, the mortgage application or any of the work in between.
The fact that the mortgage lender pays us has no bearing on the rate or deal we recommend. Our job is to find you the right mortgage. That’s what we’re paid to do.
No advice fee. No application fee. No fee on completion. We’re paid by the lender and we’re FCA regulated, so the advice is held to the highest professional standards.
Islington is not one property market but several, and the type of home you buy here can shape your mortgage options as much as your income does.
Canonbury and Barnsbury attract professional families and City workers drawn to the Georgian and Victorian terraces around Thornhill Square and the Grade II* listed Tudor Gothic townhouses of Lonsdale Square. Prices in Canonbury average around £2.05 million, so these are not entry-level purchases, and listed building status on much of the stock means lenders and insurers want more scrutiny before they commit.
Highbury is the buy-to-let sweet spot. Gross rental yields in N5 reach approximately 5.1% (RealYield, April 2026), the highest in the borough, and the Victorian terraced streets around Highbury Fields hold their appeal for long-term tenants. The honest observation: short leases on older flat conversions here are common and worth checking early.
Archway and Holloway are where first-time buyers actually get a foothold. Average asking prices across the two areas run from around £543,000 to £592,000, and Archway brings Zone 2 Northern line access at a price point that the rest of the borough cannot match.
Converted leasehold flats make up around 77 to 81% of all property sales in the borough. The recurring issue is lease length. Most mainstream lenders require at least 70 to 85 years remaining at application, and a lease that looks fine today can fall below lender thresholds by the time you reach the end of a 25-year mortgage term. Extension costs rise sharply once a lease drops below 80 years, so getting the lease checked before you make an offer matters. Older leases should also be reviewed for ground rent clauses: doubling ground rent terms can make a property unmortgageable with certain lenders.
Ex-local authority flats are concentrated in Holloway and Finsbury Park. Most high-street lenders will consider them, but many restrict lending above certain floor levels, and 1960s to 1980s concrete panel construction narrows lender choice further. For blocks above 18 metres, or between 11 and 18 metres where cladding risk factors exist, an EWS1 certificate will typically be required before a mortgage can proceed. Not every block has completed assessment, so this is worth confirming before you fall in love with a flat.
A one-bedroom flat typically costs between £395,000 and £600,000, with the borough-wide flat average at around £638,000 (Rightmove/Land Registry). A three-bedroom terraced house in Barnsbury or Highbury will generally run from £900,000 to £1.8 million, with the borough terrace average sitting around £1.63 million. At a 10% deposit on a £600,000 flat, the loan is £540,000. At a standard 4.5x income multiple, that requires a salary of around £120,000. Some lenders offer 5x income or higher for professionals with strong earnings, which can meaningfully change what is accessible. Borough-wide prices fell 6.4% in the year to May 2026 (ONS provisional), which is difficult news for recent buyers but creates real opportunity for those buying now.
Islington rewards buyers who understand the detail: the right postcode, the right lease, and the right lender can make a significant difference to what you can borrow and what it costs you.
★★★★★ 1,600+ verified reviews
We’re used by clients across London and the wider UK, with 1,600+ verified 5★ Trustpilot reviews. You can read our independent reviews from people we’ve arranged mortgages for, which gives a good sense of how we work.
We compare around 14,000 mortgage products from more than 99 mortgage lenders, including high street banks and specialist lenders. London has its own mix of property types — period conversions, ex-local authority flats, Victorian terraces and new build towers are all assessed differently by lenders.
It’s not just about finding a rate. It’s about placing your mortgage with the right lender first time.
We don’t favour any one lender. With access to over 99 lenders, we’re spoilt for choice. We match your mortgage application with the lenders whose criteria best fit your circumstances. From your first enquiry through to your mortgage offer, you’ll have a qualified mortgage adviser managing the entire process, not a faceless call centre.
| Feature | YesCanDo Money | Typical Broker |
|---|---|---|
| Broker fees | £0 | £300–£700 |
| Whole-of-market access | ✅ 99+ lenders | Not always — many use a limited panel |
| Mortgage products | ✅ 14,000+ | Restricted to their panel (Typically 10-60 lenders) |
| Dedicated adviser | ✅ Yes | Often passed between staff |
| Application handling | ✅ Fully managed | Varies by firm |
| Updates throughout | ✅ Proactive | Often only when chased |
| Communication | ✅ Phone, Email, Video & WhatsApp | Phone or email only |
| Trustpilot rating | ✅ 5/5 Stars - Rated Excellent | Industry Standard 4.1 out of 5 |
| Fee on completion | ✅ None | Some charge on top of lender commission |
Mortgage rates move regularly and the best deal for you depends on your deposit, the property and your circumstances. The rates below give a live snapshot of what’s available at 80% loan to value, but the headline rate is only ever part of the picture. We’ll compare the true cost across 99+ lenders and match your mortgage application to the one most likely to accept it.
THE SITUATION
A newly qualified solicitor and a data analyst, both renting in N7, had found a two-bedroom Victorian conversion flat on Hornsey Road in Holloway priced at £640,000. With a 10% deposit of £64,000 saved between them, they needed a loan of £576,000 against a combined income of £121,000. That is a multiple of 4.76x, above the standard 4.5x ceiling most high-street lenders apply. Their offer had been accepted and the vendor wanted exchange agreed within eight weeks.
THE CHALLENGE
The 4.76x multiple ruled out the majority of mainstream lenders at standard criteria. The solicitor’s income included a mix of base salary and a contractual bonus, which some lenders treat inconsistently. Finding a lender comfortable with both the income structure and the stretch multiple, without a penalty rate, was the core problem.
WHAT WE DID
We identified lenders with enhanced income multiple policies for qualifying professionals, where 5x income or higher is available under specific criteria, and matched the solicitor’s income documentation to a lender whose underwriting accepts bonus income alongside base salary. The loan of £576,000 was placed at 4.93%, keeping the rate competitive despite the higher multiple.
THE OUTCOME
Formal mortgage offer arrived in 10 days, well inside the vendor’s eight-week deadline. They completed on their first home in Holloway and paid no broker fee throughout.
THE SITUATION
A civil servant turned freelance policy consultant owned a two-bedroom converted flat in Canonbury, N1, valued at £655,000 with £385,000 outstanding on a fixed-rate deal approaching its end date. She wanted to raise an additional £29,000 alongside the remortgage to refit the kitchen and create a proper home workspace before her first contract renewal deadline.
THE CHALLENGE
She had gone self-employed eleven months earlier, so she had only one year of accounts rather than the two most high-street lenders require. Her existing lender offered a product transfer at 5.42%, which required no fresh income assessment. A full switch meant a better rate of 5.13% but required underwriting her new self-employed income, which was strong but undocumented by the usual standard.
WHAT WE DID
We identified a specialist lender willing to underwrite one year of self-employed accounts alongside a contract rate letter, making the full switch viable. The total loan came to £414,000. On a 25-year term, the product transfer at 5.42% produced monthly payments of £2,523; the secured remortgage at 5.13% produced £2,452, a saving of £71 a month. We ran both options side by side so the numbers were clear before she decided.
THE OUTCOME
She secured the full switch at 5.13%, released the £29,000 for the works, and received her formal mortgage offer in 19 days. No broker fee.
THE SITUATION
A data scientist and her husband, a hospital pharmacologist, were selling their two-bedroom flat in N7 at £490,000 and buying a three-bedroom Victorian terrace in Highbury, N5, at £825,000. With two young children, the extra room wasn’t a luxury. Their existing mortgage balance stood at £255,000, fixed at 4.02%, with an early repayment charge of £9,200 still live.
THE CHALLENGE
The total loan needed was £595,000, meaning a top-up of £340,000 beyond the ported balance. A clean remortgage to a new lender would have cleared the structure and offered a single rate of 4.65%, but triggering the ERC would have added £9,200 to their costs on day one. The porting route split the loan: £255,000 staying at 4.02% and £340,000 at 4.79%, producing a blended rate of approximately 4.46%.
WHAT WE DID
We modelled both options on a 25-year term. The ported blended structure produced monthly payments around £64 lower than the clean remortgage, and avoided the £9,200 ERC entirely. Porting won clearly, and the chain had a firm completion date tied to the buyers of the N7 flat needing to be in before their tenancy expired, so speed mattered. We submitted the full mortgage application and had formal offer in 13 days.
THE OUTCOME
They completed on the Highbury terrace on schedule, saving roughly £64 a month against the remortgage alternative and keeping £9,200 in their pocket. No broker fee charged.
THE SITUATION
A broadcast engineer wanted to purchase a two-bedroom ex-local authority flat in N5 as a first buy-to-let investment. The purchase price was £595,000, with a 25% deposit of £148,750 and a loan of £446,250. Expected monthly rent was £2,530, a little below the N5 average of £2,804 (ONS, June 2026), reflecting the ex-local authority stock.
THE CHALLENGE
Every high-street lender she approached applied a 145% rental coverage test at a notional 5.5% rate, requiring monthly rent of at least £2,966. At £2,530, she fell well short. On top of that, being a first-time landlord with no existing portfolio narrowed her options further before the lease length on the flat had even been checked.
WHAT WE DID
We identified a specialist BTL lender applying a 125% coverage test at the 5.23% pay rate, which required rent of £2,431 a month. At £2,530, the flat cleared that threshold. The lender also accepted first-time landlords with strong employed income, and the lease had sufficient years remaining to satisfy their criteria without an extension.
THE OUTCOME
Her mortgage offer came through in 15 days, with no broker fee to pay. She completed on a property yielding roughly 5.1% gross in one of Islington’s strongest rental postcodes.
Every mortgage situation has its own quirks. We’ll find the lender that fits. Get Free Advice →
We work with high street banks as well as specialist lenders that only accept applications through brokers. Some deals simply aren’t available if you go directly to a bank.
We tell you upfront how a lender is likely to view your mortgage application and what’s genuinely achievable. No jargon, no vague answers and no surprises down the line.
We chase the mortgage lender, deal with queries and coordinate with the valuer and your solicitor so things keep moving without it landing back on you.
We identify where your case fits before submitting anything. Self-employed earnings, contractor rates, bonus income and commission can all affect which lenders say yes.
You’ll never be left wondering where things stand. We contact you when decisions are made and flag anything that needs your attention straight away.
Phone, online meeting or WhatsApp, whatever suits you best. Most clients never need to meet us in person and the advice is exactly the same either way.
With 1,600+ five-star reviews on Trustpilot, we’re ranked among the top 10 mortgage brokers in the UK. That comes from taking every case seriously and making sure every client feels looked after from the first conversation right through to completion.
Buying your first home in London means navigating leasehold flats, shared ownership schemes and new build developments. We handle the mortgage side from start to finish, including shared ownership and Help to Buy.
If your deal is ending or you want to check you’re on the right rate, we search across 99+ lenders and handle everything. It costs nothing to find out if you can do better.
Moving home in London often means properties lenders assess very differently. Whether porting (transferring your current mortgage to your new home) or getting a new deal, we compare both options and manage everything through to offer.
London has one of the strongest rental markets in the country, with high tenant demand across every borough. Rental income calculations and lender criteria need to be right from the start.
A mortgage is a long term commitment. We advise on life cover, critical illness cover and income protection so that if something unexpected happens, your home isn’t left exposed.
Islington sits immediately north of the City, running from Clerkenwell in the south to Archway in the north, and the mortgage landscape here is genuinely complex. Listed buildings, short leases, ex-local authority stock and cladding assessments all feature heavily depending on which postcode you are buying in. Getting the right lender matched to the right property type matters more here than in most London boroughs.
For the right buyer, very much so, though what you get varies enormously depending on how far north you go.
The southern end, around Angel and Clerkenwell, is dense, urban and extremely well connected. Barnsbury and Canonbury offer some of the finest Georgian and Victorian streetscapes in inner London. Thornhill Square is the kind of address people move to and stay for decades. Head north through Holloway to Archway and the character shifts: more mixed, more affordable, less polished. That gradient is real, and it matters for both lifestyle and budget.
Islington has 16 stations across the Underground, Overground and National Rail. Angel (Zone 1, Northern line) is two minutes from King’s Cross St. Pancras, which gives direct access to Cambridge, Edinburgh and Eurostar services. Highbury and Islington station puts Victoria ten minutes away on the Victoria line. Farringdon, on the borough’s southern edge, connects to Canary Wharf in around nine minutes on the Elizabeth line and to Heathrow in approximately 40 minutes. Commuter credentials here are exceptional.
Highbury and Canonbury attract families in part because of the schools that drive catchment demand in those neighbourhoods. Highbury Fields is the borough’s largest open space and anchors the N5 area well for weekend life. For younger families, the combination of parks, good transport and period housing stock in the N1 and N5 postcodes is a strong draw, though you will pay a significant premium to live within the most sought-after catchments.
Price is the obvious one. Even the borough’s most affordable postcode, N19 around Archway, has an average entry point of around £543,000 to £592,000. Flat prices fell 7.0% in the year to May 2026 (ONS provisional), so values are moving in buyers’ favour, but the absolute numbers are still high for first-time buyers without substantial family support. The borough also lacks the green space of outer London, and parts of Finsbury Park and Holloway appear in the most deprived 20% nationally (English Indices of Deprivation 2025).
Sharply divided by postcode, dominated by flats, and carrying more lender complexity per square mile than almost anywhere else in inner London.
Flats account for roughly 77 to 81% of all property sales in the borough (Rightmove/Land Registry), the majority being conversions of 19th-century terraces rather than purpose-built blocks. The borough average flat price is approximately £638,000. Terraced houses average around £1.63 million, with Canonbury four-bedroom houses averaging £2.45 million. Short leases are a recurring issue across converted stock: many mainstream lenders require at least 70 to 85 years unexpired at application, and extension costs rise sharply below 80 years. Islington also has approximately 4,500 listed buildings and 42 conservation areas, and any converted flat in a conservation area needs careful scrutiny for unauthorised works before you apply.
Borough-wide prices are down 6.4% year on year to May 2026 (ONS provisional), making this a buyer’s market on price if not always on competition for well-priced stock. New build supply is limited: 34 developments currently listed from 23 developers, with asking prices ranging from around £395,000 to £761,000. Most lenders cap loan-to-value at 85% on new build flats, and some apply 80%.
Average private rents in Islington reached £2,843 per month in June 2026 (ONS), up 5.4% year on year against a London-wide average increase of 2.2%. N5 (Highbury) delivers the strongest gross yield in the borough at approximately 5.1%, with monthly rents averaging £2,804. N7 (Holloway) offers a practical entry point for buy-to-let investors, with rents in the £2,400 to £2,600 range and yields of 4.5% to 5.0%.
If you are looking to get a mortgage in Islington, the combination of complex property types and a fast-moving rental market makes specialist mortgage advice in Islington genuinely worthwhile: the property type and postcode combination you choose can determine which lenders are even available to you.
A short call to understand your situation and goals — income, deposit, the property and anything that might affect lender choice. From there we give you a clear picture of what’s realistic.
We search across the market, including lenders you can’t reach directly. Once you’re happy with the recommendation, we secure the rate, arrange an agreement in principle and submit the full application.
When the lender is satisfied, they issue the formal offer. We stay involved right through to completion, and if a better rate appears before then we’ll look at whether switching makes sense.
No charge for the initial discussion — we’ll explain the options before anything moves forward.
★★★★★ Rated Excellent · 1,600+ reviews
Buying a house is the biggest financial decision most of us ever make. So why do so many of us walk into offers armed with little more than a Rightmove
Lloyds Banking Group is launching a new mortgage that lets first-time buyers get on the property ladder with a deposit of just £5,000. The Halifax £5,000 Deposit Mortgage goes live
In a property market that has spent the last two years swinging between hesitation and urgency, the speed of your mortgage offer is no longer just a convenience. It decides
Flats account for around 77 to 81 per cent of all property sales in Islington, and the majority are Victorian conversions rather than purpose-built blocks. That matters at the mortgage stage because lease lengths, listed building status, and ground rent terms can stop a mainstream application in its tracks before it starts.
We’re a family-run, FCA regulated mortgage broker, not a call centre. You deal with a real adviser throughout, someone who takes the time to understand your situation and works out the best route forward before any paperwork is started.
In Islington, the rate is rarely the hardest part. Getting the right lender placed against the right property, whether that is a short-lease conversion in Holloway, a listed Georgian flat in Barnsbury, or an ex-local authority block in Finsbury Park, is where the real work happens.
