Mortgage
Financially, a mortgage is called a 'debt instrument'. This gives conditional ownership of the asset (the house) but is secured against the asset. Therefore whilst you think of the house as being yours, it is conditional on keeping up mortgage payments, and if you can't, then the asset could be put up for sale to pay off the debt; repossessions can and do occur on a regular basis.
The interest on the mortgage, as it is such a long term loan - typically around the 25 year mark, means that you actually end up paying a lot more than the mortgage amount. If you mortgage for say £100,000 then you will quite likely end up paying £200,000 in total over the course of those 25 years.
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