mortgage contracts often run for 30-50 years and, theoretically, this means that the loan should have been repaid by the time the contract expires. In practice, the rate of amortisation varies from bank to bank and from borrower to borrower, and it is not unusual for the amortisation rate to mean that it will take more than[FONT="] 1[/FONT][FONT="]0[/FONT][FONT="]0 years to repay a loan.[/FONT][FONT="]33[/FONT][FONT="] [/FONT][FONT="]T[/FONT][FONT="]his [/FONT][FONT="]m[/FONT][FONT="]a[/FONT][FONT="]y mean that there is a residual debt when the contract expires and that the borrower must renew the contract. An interest- only mortgage means that the household only pays interest on the loan until the day the household sells the property and the bank demands payment for the loan. [/FONT]