I would say she does have a mortgage, it wouldn't make much sense to cash buy a 1-2million quid house outright at the start of your career. Also think you're seriously over estimating her actual solid funds in the bank at the time. I doubt she had that sitting in solid cash in 2020/21, maybe close to, but not enough to drain it to 0 when interest rates for mortgages were so low at the time, why wouldn't you take a mortgage when they were at an all time low, as another poster said, cheap way to borrow money and money was cheap at the time. It wouldn't have made sense to cash buy it. I'd say she maybe done a 60% LTV at most. Interest rates are now a totally different story if she didn't fix for 10 years she might feel the pinch.