Why is a ‘normal’ mortgage term considered to be 25 years?

This is a common misconception, there is no such thing as a ‘normal’ or standard mortgage term. We will generally look to structure the mortgage term around how much you are comfortable paying each month and will look to avoid an unnecessarily long term wherever possible as you just end up paying more interest over a longer period.

25 year mortgages used to be ‘the norm’ for reasons that are no longer relevant – back in the ‘80s and ‘90s a popular type of mortgage was an interest only with a linked endowment, so the mortgage would run alongside a separate investment policy with the idea being that the interest only mortgage payment plus the endowment policy payment, would come to a lower figure than a straight repayment mortgage – hence the appeal. The endowment policy was designed to mature over time, and provide a sufficient lump-sum amount to clear the interest only mortgage at the end of a pre-defined period – normally 25 years… Problems came about though when endowment policies fell short and left people with large chunks of mortgages which could not be repaid, and these setups lost popularity pretty quickly.