---
title: "Terms used across these guides"
url: https://frederickkuo.com/terms/
description: "A plain-language glossary of the housing, transaction, mortgage and place terms used across the guides on this site."
---

# Terms used across these guides

Reference

**Definitions as the words are used on this site. Where a term has a precise legal meaning that varies by jurisdiction, the entry describes the idea rather than the rule.**

**Agreement in principle**: A lender's provisional indication of what it would be prepared to lend, based on stated information. Not an offer and not binding.

**Amortisation**: The gradual repayment of a loan's principal over its term through regular payments that also cover interest.

**Asking price**: The price at which a property is marketed. A position taken by the seller, not an assessment of value.

**Building line**: The distance the fronts of buildings sit back from the street, and how consistent that distance is along it.

**Chain**: A set of linked purchases that must complete together because each household is funding its purchase from its sale.

**Completion**: The point at which funds move, ownership transfers and possession changes hands.

**Condition report**: A survey concerned with the visible state of a building rather than with its value.

**Conveyancing**: The legal work of transferring ownership of property, including examining title, raising enquiries and ordering searches.

**Covenant**: An obligation attached to land, commonly a restriction on what the owner may do, which can bind later owners.

**Deposit**: The share of the purchase price funded from the buyer's own resources rather than borrowed.

**Easement**: A right over someone else's land, such as a right of way or a right to run services through it.

**Equity**: The difference between what a property is worth and what is owed against it.

**Exchange**: The moment at which the parties become legally committed to the transaction and a completion date is fixed.

**Fixed rate**: A mortgage rate held constant for a stated period, after which the loan normally reverts to a variable rate.

**Freehold**: Ownership of the land and the building on it, without a fixed term.

**Grain**: The pattern of plot widths and depths in an area, which shapes the buildings that can sit on it.

**Ground rent**: A periodic sum payable under some leases in respect of the land.

**Infill**: New building on leftover ground within an already-developed area.

**Interest-only**: A mortgage on which payments cover interest alone, leaving the principal to be repaid separately at the end of the term.

**Leasehold**: Ownership of a right to occupy for a fixed term on stated conditions, rather than ownership of the land itself.

**Loan-to-value**: The loan expressed as a percentage of the property's value. Lenders normally price in bands of it.

**Local authority search**: An enquiry to the relevant authority about what it holds concerning a property, including planning history and road status.

**Principal**: The sum borrowed, as distinct from the interest charged on it.

**Registered title**: The official record of ownership of a property and of the rights and burdens affecting it.

**Repayment mortgage**: A mortgage on which each payment covers interest and also reduces the principal, so the debt reaches zero at the end of the term.

**Search**: A specific enquiry made of a specific body about a specific property during the legal stage of a purchase.

**Security of tenure**: The extent to which an occupier is protected against being required to leave.

**Service charge**: A sum payable towards the cost of maintaining shared parts of a building or estate.

**Stock and flow**: The total number of dwellings in an area, against the small number available to buy at any moment. Only the second sets prices.

**Stress test**: An assessment of whether a borrower could still meet payments if rates were materially higher.

**Term**: The period over which a mortgage runs.

**Turnover**: The share of an area's housing stock that changes hands in a year.

**Unrecoverable cost**: Money spent on housing that does not come back, such as rent or the interest portion of a mortgage payment.

**Valuation**: An assessment of the price a property would be expected to achieve, prepared for a stated purpose such as lending.

## On this page

- 34 definitions, alphabetical
- Market, transaction, money and place terms
- The vocabulary used by the twelve guides

## Not on this page

- Statutory definitions
- Rules for any one jurisdiction

## Next

- [How a local housing market actually works](https://frederickkuo.com/market-mechanics/)
- [Buying a home, stage by stage](https://frederickkuo.com/purchase-sequence/)
- [Mortgages in plain terms](https://frederickkuo.com/mortgage-basics/)

Reference · 3 min · 652 words