Pure and simply free

A new national fee-free mortgage broker opened for business this week.

Purely Mortgages (purely.co.uk) is phone and internet-based - there are no actual branches - and is targeting "mid-market" borrowers who don't want to pay broker fees and whose needs are relatively simple, but still want a bit of hand-holding.

It is promising to "scour the whole of the mortgage market" to find the best deal for its customers but will be up against biggies like Charcol (which does charge broker fees) and London & Country (which doesn't).

Some people might question the timing of the launch, bearing in mind the property market's much-debated wobbles and a slowdown in mortgage lending.

But spokesman Ian Giles says: "A few months of house price stagnation is not going to make it a bad time to launch."

He adds that there are still a lot of people who want to remortgage, with many languishing on their lenders' standard variable rates.

The venture is being backed by some big names in the mortgage industry.