BUYING a new home can be daunting, particularly in today's uncertain economic climate, when the housing market is slowing and some pundits are predicting hard times ahead.

What is most worrying for many potential buyers is the prospect of taking on a massive mortgage and becoming trapped by a mountain of debt should anything go wrong. Signing up for a home loan is one of the most significant financial transactions most people make, and the consequences should never be viewed lightly. For this reason, many consumers find the whole process daunting.

They lie awake at night, plagued with questions. What sort of mortgage should you choose? How can you be sure you can always afford the repayments? Are there any nasty stings in the small print? And, most crucially of all, who can you trust?

There are no shortage of professionals queuing up to offer advice, from mortgage brokers to solicitors, banks and building societies, estate agents and even insurance companies. Yet the more advice available, the more vulnerable many would-be purchasers feel.

First-time buyers can feel particularly exposed. The whole bewildering process can reduce them to little more than rabbits caught in headlights.

However, help is at last on hand. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) last week launched a new service entitled Mortgages Laid Bare, providing impartial, jargon-free information about mortgages, along with tables highlighting the best mortgage options for different circumstances.

The watchdog acted after research highlighted the alarming level of ignorance among homebuyers, with more than half (56%) of new borrowers being clueless about what APR stands for.

APR is the annual percentage rate, which is supposed to encapsulate both the interest rate and other loan costs such as fees. However, there is some leeway about how APR is calculated, so it is possible for two loans with identical APRs to cost different amounts.

For this reason, APRs, traditionally the main tool for comparing home loans, have fallen out of fashion. The most accurate way to work out a mortgage bill is to compare monthly repayments and initial fees, and the FSA website includes details of both for the loans it highlights as your best options.

Even more worrying is that 52% of mortgage-holders did not know their current APR. Nearly four out of 10 did not understand at least half of their mortgage product literature.

Unsurprisingly, 65% of first-time buyers felt daunted by buying a mortgage, and more than three-quarters did not know who they could trust and expressed a desire for more impartial information about mortgages.

The FSA website www.mortgageslaidbare.info is entirely impartial. It also includes budget calculators that will help consumers work out how much they can afford to borrow and how much a mortgage will cost them each month, and a service allowing consumers to check that the firm they are dealing with is authorised.

Some critics of the new regime, built around the FSA's introduction of 'keyfacts' documents, argued that it was in danger of reducing rather than enhancing consumer choice. This is because potential borrowers could no longer stick their head around a bank or building society branch door and ask for a quote.

Information could only be given if consumers went through a full interview and were handed detailed information in this keyfacts document. However, these interviews usually take about half an hour and can require prior appointments, which some believed would deter consumers from seeking information from more than about three institutions.

With the new website, much of the homework can be done before a borrower steps out into the high street, or picks up a phone or logs on to mortgage sites on the web. Once they have used the service to narrow down their options, then interviews can be arranged at the favoured few.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders welcomed the FSA's initiative. Spokeswoman Sue Anderson said: "There are plenty of other websites giving mortgage information, but these will attempt to steer you towards certain lenders, as their primary business is to sell mortgages. Only at the FSA can you be absolutely sure there is no bias."

HBOS spokesman Paul Fincham added: "Arranging a mortgage is still a very significant commitment for most people. Yet there is no doubt first-time buyers find it quite a challenge. But given that existing borrowers change their mortgages about once every five or seven years, the products available may well have changed in the interim and they will be unfamiliar with the new trends. This website will help them refresh their understanding."

She says the Switch With Which? website gives free access to such data: "You type in your requirements and timespan - which can be three, five or however many years - and this will give you the total cost of one deal compared with another."

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