James Morgan

James Morgan has been writing about UK property and mortgages since 2016. He covers the full purchase journey — affordability checks, mortgage product comparison, the deposit and loan-to-value puzzle, stamp duty (SDLT in England and Northern Ireland, LBTT in Scotland, LTT in Wales), first-time buyer reliefs, conveyancing costs, and what to expect at completion.

James also writes on the landlord side: buy-to-let mortgages, the 3% additional-property SDLT surcharge, Section 24 finance-cost restriction, rental yield maths, and the practical realities of being a small private landlord in the post-2017 tax regime. He has a particular interest in the remortgage decision — when to switch product, the trade-off between rate and arrangement fee, early repayment charges, and how to read a mortgage offer document.

James's mortgage worked examples are built up from the underlying amortisation schedule, not borrowed from comparison sites, and stamp-duty figures are verified band-by-band against the HMRC SDLT calculator. He writes to CalcHub's editorial standards, with primary-source citations to HMRC, Revenue Scotland and the Welsh Revenue Authority, and clear disclosure that CalcHub does not sell mortgages or take affiliate commission on regulated mortgage products.

James’s mortgage worked examples are built from the underlying amortisation schedule rather than borrowed from comparison sites, and every stamp-duty figure is verified band-by-band against the HMRC SDLT calculator (or Revenue Scotland LBTT / Welsh Revenue Authority LTT calculators for the devolved nations). Where he quotes a market figure — average two-year fixed rate, average house price, average deposit — the source is named inline (Bank of England, ONS House Price Index, UK Finance).

James writes to CalcHub’s editorial standards. CalcHub does not sell mortgages, does not take affiliate commission on regulated mortgage products, and James’s copy carries explicit disclosure of that fact wherever a reader might reasonably ask. His guides are peer-reviewed and refreshed every 6 April, with event-driven updates within 7 days of an MPC base-rate decision or a Budget that touches SDLT, LBTT or LTT.