The average monthly mortgage payment in Britain was £119 lower in January than the same month last year, at £1,592, according to an analysis by Rightmove (RMV.L).
The property platform said that this 7% fall in payments year-on-year for new buyers was due to a combination of average mortgage rate drops and slow house price growth.
Rightmove (RMV.L) used daily mortgage rate and property asking price data to calculate residential mortgage payments. The mortgage payments are based on average two-year fixed rates with a circa £999 fee and based on 95% of the mortgage market, excluding specialist lending. The findings also assume buyers have a 20% deposit and spread the cost of their mortgage over 25 years.
In January, the average two-year fixed mortgage rate was 4.23%, down from 4.99% a year earlier. The national average asking price came in at £368,031 last month, which was just 0.5% higher year-on-year.
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Rightmove (RMV.L) pointed out that while buyers are looking at notable savings compared to last year due to the decline in mortgage rates, a large monthly increase in property prices this January means that they face paying slightly more on a new deal than in December.
The national average monthly mortgage payment is £35 more than in December 2025, when the typical asking price for a home stood at £358,138.
On a regional basis, property buyers in London saw the biggest drop year-on-year in monthly mortgage payments in January, with a decline of £207 to £2,940. Rightmove (RMV.L) explained that because home are more expensive in London, proportional mortgage rate drops result in bigger cash savings. The average asking price in London stood at £679,782 in January.
In contrast, buyers in the North East saw the smallest fall in average monthly mortgage payments in the year to January, of £38, to £853. Rightmove (RMV.L) said that this was because homes are cheapest in the North East but also because asking prices have risen faster in this region, with this offsetting some of the savings of lower mortgage rates. The average asking price in the North East in January was £197,264.
For first-time buyers, Rightmove found that the national average monthly mortgage payment had fallen to £975 in January, down from £1,062 a year earlier. The average asking price for a typical first-time buyer home was £225,544 last month, meaning a 20% deposit would work out to £45,109.
Looking at other types of deals, Rightmove (RMV.L) said that the average rate for those remortgaging was 4.32% in January, down from 5.14% a year earlier. Meanwhile, the average buy-to-let mortgage rate fell to 4.84% in January, from 5.51% for the same month last year.
Read more: UK house prices rose by 2.4% in December
The property platform said that the average remortgage rate is based on a two-year fixed deal with a circa £999, while the typical buy-to-let mortgage rate is based on a two-year fixed deal with a 25% deposit and no fee.
Matt Smith, mortgage expert at Rightmove (RMV.L), said: “We saw some headline grabbing low mortgage rates being offered by lenders at the end of 2025 and into January, which saw average rates drop to their lowest level since before the mini-Budget.
“Since then, rates have stabilised and even ticked up marginally in places as the cost of funding mortgages has become more expensive, due to global and domestic economic events.”
Rightmove’s latest house price index, published on Monday, showed that the average price of a newly listed home came in at £368,019 in February, falling just £12 from the previous month.
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