---
title: "A plain-language glossary of housing terms"
url: https://vflyerwiki.com/glossary/
description: "Definitions of the terms used across this site, from asking price and chain to loan to value, tenure and variable rate."
published: 2026-08-17
updated: 2026-08-17
---

# A plain-language glossary of housing terms

Published 2026-08-17

Every term below is used somewhere else on this site. Definitions are general and describe ordinary usage rather than any statutory definition.

**Achieved price**: The amount actually paid at completion, after any renegotiation. The only price that is evidence of what a market did.

**Affordability assessment**: A lender's evaluation of whether repayments are sustainable, including a stress test at a higher rate than the one being offered.

**Agreed price**: The figure accepted when a sale goes under offer. In most of the UK it is not binding until contracts are exchanged.

**Arrangement fee**: A lender's charge for setting up a loan, payable up front or added to the balance, in which case interest is paid on it for the term.

**Asking price**: The advertised figure. A marketing decision rather than a valuation.

**Backland development**: New housing built on the rear part of deep existing plots, usually reached by a side access.

**Boundary**: The physical or legal edge of a property. Registered plans show general position, not precise legal lines.

**Break-even horizon**: The length of stay at which the unrecoverable costs of buying and selling are outweighed by the saving against renting.

**Building line**: The consistent distance from the street at which the fronts of buildings sit along a stretch of road.

**Building regulations approval**: Confirmation that work met construction standards. Distinct from planning permission, and frequently the missing document in a transaction.

**Building survey**: The most detailed buyer survey, covering construction, defects, their causes and likely remedies. Suited to older or altered buildings.

**Capital**: The amount borrowed, as distinct from the interest charged on it.

**Chain**: A sequence of linked transactions in which each purchase depends on a sale. The main source of fragility in residential transactions.

**Chain-free**: A buyer whose purchase does not depend on selling a property, or a seller with no onward purchase.

**Completion**: The transfer of funds and title, and the point at which possession passes.

**Condition report**: The lightest form of buyer survey, giving element-by-element gradings without detailed advice or, usually, a valuation.

**Conservation area**: A designated area where additional controls apply to demolition, alteration and trees.

**Contract**: The agreement for sale. Until it is exchanged, either party may withdraw without liability in most of the UK.

**Conveyancing**: The legal work of transferring ownership, covering title, searches, enquiries and completion.

**Covenant**: A promise attached to land that restricts or requires something, binding on later owners.

**Deposit**: The buyer's own contribution to the purchase price, and separately the sum paid on exchange of contracts.

**Drainage and water search**: An enquiry establishing connection to public sewers and mains water and the position of public sewers relative to the boundary.

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

**Early repayment charge**: A fee for repaying a loan, in whole or part, during a fixed or discounted period.

**Environmental search**: A desk-based assessment of contamination, flood, ground stability and landfill risk. Not a site inspection.

**Equity**: The difference between a property's value and the debt secured on it.

**Exchange of contracts**: The point at which a sale becomes legally binding and a completion date is fixed.

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

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

**Frontage**: The width of a plot along the street. A primary determinant of density and of what a plot cost to develop.

**Gazumping**: A seller accepting a higher offer after agreeing a sale but before exchange, which the absence of a binding agreement permits.

**Ground rent**: A periodic sum payable by a leaseholder to the freeholder under the terms of a lease.

**Homebuyer survey**: A mid-level inspection of visible and accessible parts, with gradings and commentary, often including a valuation.

**Illiquidity**: The property of an asset that cannot be sold quickly or cheaply. A defining feature of housing.

**Indemnity policy**: Insurance used to cover a defined legal risk, such as a missing consent, rather than resolving the underlying issue.

**Infill**: New building within an already developed area, on gaps, garden land or redundant sites.

**Interest-only**: A loan on which no capital is repaid during the term, leaving the full balance outstanding at the end.

**Leasehold**: Ownership of a property for a fixed term under a lease, with obligations to a freeholder.

**Lender's valuation**: An inspection commissioned by the lender to confirm the property is adequate security. Not a condition survey for the buyer.

**Loan to value**: The loan as a percentage of the property's value. Determines which rate bands are available.

**Local authority search**: An enquiry covering planning history, building regulation records, road status and notices affecting the property itself.

**Major works**: Substantial repairs to a leasehold building, recharged to leaseholders and capable of producing very large individual bills.

**Mortgage offer**: The lender's formal commitment to advance funds, subject to conditions and with an expiry date.

**Negative equity**: The position where the debt secured on a property exceeds its value.

**Offer**: A buyer's proposed price. Information rather than an obligation until contracts are exchanged.

**Overage**: An agreement that a further payment falls due if a defined event, usually a planning consent, occurs after sale.

**Planning permission**: Consent for development or change of use. Distinct from building regulations approval.

**Plot depth**: How far a plot extends back from the street. Determines capacity for extension or later development.

**Portability**: The ability to transfer an existing mortgage to a new property, subject to the lender's conditions at the time.

**Redemption**: Repayment of a mortgage in full.

**Remortgage**: Replacing an existing loan with a new one, usually at the end of an initial rate period.

**Reserve fund**: Money collected from leaseholders in advance towards future major works.

**Retention**: A sum a lender withholds until specified works are completed.

**Search**: An enquiry made of a body holding information about a property or its surroundings, each answering one narrow question.

**Service charge**: A leaseholder's contribution to the costs of maintaining and managing a building and its shared parts.

**Setback**: The distance between the front of a building and the street edge.

**Stamp duty or land transaction tax**: Tax payable on property purchases, varying by jurisdiction, value and buyer circumstances.

**Standard variable rate**: A lender's default rate, applying when an initial deal ends and typically the most expensive position.

**Stress test**: An affordability check asking whether payments would remain sustainable at a materially higher rate.

**Subject to contract**: A statement that terms are agreed but not binding until contracts are exchanged.

**Tenure**: The legal basis on which a property is held: freehold, leasehold, commonhold or a form of rental tenancy.

**Term**: The period over which a loan is scheduled to be repaid.

**Time on market**: How long a property has been advertised. Often more informative about local conditions than price alone.

**Title**: The legal ownership of land, together with the rights and burdens registered against it.

**Tracker rate**: A rate that follows a published reference rate by a fixed margin, moving as that rate moves.

**Turnover**: The proportion of the housing stock changing hands in a period. Usually small, which is why prices are set at the margin.

**Under offer**: The status of a property whose sale has been agreed but not exchanged.

**Valuation**: An opinion of value, formed by adjusting comparable evidence for differences in the specific property.

**Variable rate**: Any rate the lender may change, whether tracking a benchmark or set at the lender's discretion.