Plain English
The words we refuse to use.
Finance jargon belongs in industry briefings, not in a product people use to decide something about their own money. Plain English leaves nobody out.
The industry says
We say
Equity
Your share
What the property is worth minus what you still owe on it. The part that is yours.
Loan to value
How much you’ve paid off
The size of the debt against the value of the property, as a percentage. Lower is better and gets you cheaper rates.
Reversion rate
When your fixed rate ends
The date your deal runs out and the rate changes. The most useful date you own.
Standard variable rate
The lender’s default rate
Where you land if you do nothing when a deal ends. Usually the most expensive rate they offer.
Amortisation
How the debt gets paid down
The way each payment splits between interest and the debt itself, and how that split shifts over the years.
Capital repayment
Money that actually reduces the debt
The part of your payment that isn’t interest. Early on there isn’t much of it.
Early repayment charge
The cost of leaving early
A fee for repaying or remortgaging before your deal ends, worked out as a percentage of the balance.
Gross yield
Rent before costs
Annual rent against what the property cost. Useful for comparing, misleading on its own.
Net yield
What you actually keep
The same after the mortgage, the agent, insurance, repairs and everything else. The number that matters.
Void period
Months with no rent
A property between tenants, still costing you the mortgage.
Portfolio
Everything you own
Including the house you live in. It counts, even though you can’t spend it.
Liquidity
Money you could actually reach
Property is worth a lot and releases nothing quickly. Worth keeping the two ideas apart.
Leverage
Borrowing to buy more
Debt magnifies both directions. It is neither clever nor reckless on its own.
Stress testing
What if things went wrong
Running your position against a bad year to see how much room you have.
Sensitivity analysis
Changing one thing at a time
Moving a single assumption to see how much of the answer depends on it.
Decumulation
Living off what you built
The stage where the money starts coming out instead of going in.
This isn’t dumbing down.
Complexity that hides the truth was the problem in the first place. Every one of these ideas is simple once someone says it in words you already use — and the jargon mostly serves the person who knows it, not the person who owns the property.