But you could also find yourself paying more as lenders and advisers attempt to recoup the £136 million cost of setting up the country's first compulsory mortgage-regulation scheme.

After years of vacillation, the Government has finally taken the plunge and decreed that all mortgage sales will be regulated. From the beginning of this week, any lender or broker who sells you a home loan (unless it is a buy-to-let mortgage, which is classified as an investment) must be authorised to do so by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Unauthorised operators face criminal charges and a possible prison sentence.

Instead of the flurry of glossy brochures that play down big arrangement fees or swingeing penalties for coming out of a deal early, every lender or adviser will have to provide you with information (called a key features document) setting out details of all fees, rates and other costs of any loan they are offering you.

According to industry figures, the new regulations will add £100 to the cost of each mortgage sold.

"It [regulation] has to be paid for, and consumers will bear some of the cost," says Sue Anderson of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, which represents the majority of lenders. "It won't be in a direct way - there may be adjustments to interest rates or changes in the way that lenders put together deals, on charges or cashbacks, for example."

Consumer groups warn that lenders could use regulation as an excuse to put up costs.

Laurence Baxter, senior policy officer at consumer watchdog Which?, says: "This could result in stealth increases. It will cost consumers more and the industry will say it is a compliance cost. But think of all the other bits of useless paper your bank or building society sends you. When they start producing bits of paper that are actually useful, they will start claiming a compliance cost."

But, says Baxter borrowers may be happy to pay more if they believe they are better protected from being sold unsuitable loans by unscrupulous lenders or brokers under the new regime.

Consumer groups have long been calling for mortgage selling to be more tightly policed and welcome the new rules. Until now, the industry has regulated itself, but many refused to sign up to the industry's code of practice, leaving borrowers with no redress if they were mis-sold a mortgage.

Which? has exposed a number of scams over the past few years, uncovering sales practices such as forcing people to take out insurance as a condition of a loan and failing to explain heavy penalties for coming out of loans early.

Under the new regime, you should be given information on the rate of any fixed or discount deal and the length of the term, as well as the rate you will move to after a deal ends. Upfront arrangement fees, penalties, the cost of add-ons, such as building and contents insurance or payment protection cover, and the effect of interest-rate rises on your monthly bills will also be included.

Mortgage advisers will have to reveal all fees and commissions and must tell you if they can sell you any mortgage on the market, a limited range of loans or loans only from their own company. Most high-street banks only sell their own mortgages.

And, for the first time, lenders will have to set out all this information in a standard format prescribed by regulators, so that you can make direct comparisons.

What the key features document will not do is compare different deals overall. If you want to work out whether it is better to go for a loan with a lower interest rate but a higher arrangement fee and bigger penalties, or whether tempting deals that offer cashback and free legal fees are really worth their hidden costs, you will have to do the sums yourself or go to an independent adviser.

There is a quick way of comparing deals, without having to leave your desk. Websites such as Moneynet allow you to carry out searches and compare offers, then put you in touch with an adviser, if you should need one.

But many buyers are more interested in comparing information on specifics such as rates or fees, says Baxter. "The key features document allows people to drill down into the aspects of a loan that they think are important and compare them."

There is general enthusiasm for the new rules, in principle. "There have been a lot of people making too much money in this industry," says Duncan Pownall, senior consultant at Towry Law Mortgage Services. "I can't see consumers losing out."

The question now is how it will work in practice. Some borrowers are already facing the prospect of having to apply for their mortgage from scratch because their broker or adviser failed to get authorisation by the 31 October deadline. Moneynet was forced to cut by nearly half the number of brokers it uses to arrange loans for users of its site because the brokers had not got authorisation. A number were approved by the FSA subsequently and have been reinstated.

Richard Brown, chief executive of Moneynet, says: "We were concerned that we were passing our users on to brokers without proper authorisation who might leave them in the lurch." Borrowers arranging deals through brokers should check that they are authorised and if they are not, take action. "If you have a mortgage offer in place, deal directly with the lender," says Brown. "Otherwise you need to start again."

To check if your adviser is authorised, visit the Financial Services Authority's website, www.fsa.gov.uk. For saving, borrowing and other services, visit www.moneynet.co.uk.