---
title: "Glossary"
url: https://bigzrealtor.com/glossary/
description: "Definitions of twenty-four recurring housing, mortgage and conveyancing terms used across this site."
published: 2026-08-17
updated: 2026-08-17
---

# Glossary

Published 2026-08-17

These are the terms that recur across the rest of the site. Where usage differs between jurisdictions the definition describes the general idea rather than any one country's statutory meaning.

**Amortisation**: The schedule by which a loan is repaid over its term, splitting each instalment between interest and a reduction of the principal.

**Asking price**: The figure at which a home is advertised. It is a marketing position, not a record of what anyone paid.

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

**Chain**: A series of linked transactions in which each buyer is also a seller, so that all must complete together.

**Charge**: A lender's registered interest in a property, securing a loan against it.

**Completion**: The point at which funds are transferred, possession passes and the change of ownership is registered.

**Condition report**: The lightest level of buyer's survey, categorising visible elements without detailed analysis.

**Conveyancing**: The legal work of transferring ownership of property from one party to another.

**Covenant**: An obligation or restriction attached to land, binding on whoever owns it.

**Deposit**: Cash contributed by a buyer that is not borrowed, or in renting, a sum held against damage and arrears.

**Easement**: A right one piece of land enjoys over another, such as access along a shared drive or the passage of drainage.

**Equity**: The share of a property's value not owed to a lender.

**Fixed rate**: A mortgage rate held at an agreed level for a stated period, after which the loan reverts to another rate.

**Freehold**: Outright and indefinite ownership of land and what stands on it, where the jurisdiction recognises that form.

**Ground rent**: A periodic payment made under a lease for the land on which a property stands.

**Infill**: New building inserted into the gaps of an existing developed area, often in long rear plots.

**Loan to value**: The size of a mortgage expressed as a percentage of the property's value.

**Mix effect**: The distortion in an average price caused by a change in what kinds of home happened to sell, rather than by any change in value.

**Principal**: The amount of money borrowed, as distinct from the interest charged on it.

**Searches**: Enquiries made of public bodies and data holders during a purchase, covering planning, environment, drainage and local risk.

**Service charge**: A recurring payment towards the maintenance and management of parts of a building shared by several households.

**Tenure**: The legal basis on which property is held: outright, for a term of years, or through a shared or managed arrangement.

**Title**: The record of ownership of a property, together with the rights and obligations attached to it.

**Valuation**: An assessment of a property's worth as security for a loan, commissioned by and for the lender.

Read next

[Searches and legal checks](https://bigzrealtor.com/searches-and-legal-checks/)

[Mortgages in plain terms](https://bigzrealtor.com/mortgages-in-plain-terms/)