27 Jun

Help to Buy re-mortgage. The sting in the tail.

Please read http://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/your-community/2018/06/27/help-buy-remortgages-none-big-players-innovative-enough-marketwatch/?utm_source=customsell&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=msol-market-watch-1530107885 Although the industry professional interview broadly like Help to Buy I can say that trying to re-mortgage people away from this is nothing short of a nightmare. Even if the client has the equity to re-mortgage and clear the Help to Buy debit, the legal process is very slow as the Help to read more

15 Jan

New record for FTB’s purchases.

Fixed Rate Mortgage

There were more first-time home buyers in 2016 than at any time since the start of the financial crisis, per research by the Halifax. The lender estimated there were 335,750 first-time buyers last year, the highest figure since 359,900 in 2007. However, the average first-time deposit has more than doubled since 2007 to stand at more than £32,000. The Halifax also found the average price of a first home broke through the £200,000 barrier for the first time. Halifax housing economist Martin Ellis attributed the read more

3 Dec

Halifax continues 95% after help to buy

It is good to see a lot of major lenders are continuing to lend at 95% even after the government will be discontinuing the help to buy after December 2016. Halifax Intermediaries today announced plans to continue supporting mortgage borrowers beyond the end date of the government’s Help to Buy: mortgage guarantee scheme on 31st December 2016. The lender will offer a new range of products for borrowers with deposits of 5%, with full details of the new product range and policies to be announced in December. More read more

15 Jun

Mortgage market concerns about ‘Brexit effect’ are justified OR are they????

The government has been heavily criticized for recent calculations on the cost of a UK exit from the EU, but their focus on how this could impact mortgage availability is wholly justified, writes Pad Bamford. The UK isn’t exactly ‘on hold’ until June 23, when the result of the EU Referendum will be known, but it certainly feels like all roads lead back to the vote. As I write, sterling has taken a tumble on the back of opinion polls showing the ‘Leave’ campaign out in front by three points (now seven points) and I read more

14 Jun

In or out??? You questions on Britexit

Prices, property, pensions: 30 EU referendum questions answered Will the nation’s decision on 23 June make you richer or poorer? We address the key consumer concerns PRICES Will food prices go up or down if we vote to leave the EU? David Cameron says families would face increased food bills of more than £220 a year if Britain left because so much of our food is imported from the single market. His claims are based on a belief that the pound would fall in value by 12%, making imports more expensive. But critics read more

19 Mar

We need a government that will stop doing this

Mortgages for homeowners and buy-to-let landlords could become more expensive under new rules being imposed by international regulators, an industry trade body has warned. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said the global rules were likely to have “unintended and negative consequences” for buy-to-let borrowers and those borrowing to finance the purchase of their own home. It warned that the Basel committee on banking supervision – which sets rules to be adopted by national banking regulators – could require read more

16 Dec

Bank of England Says “People can afford a interest rate rise”

Bank of England

Britons are weighed down by more mortgage debt than last year, but rising wages and low inflation means they are better placed to cope with a hike in interest rates, a Bank of England study has found. The average mortgage debt of a British householder has risen to about £85,000, compared with £83,000 in 2014, after a year of rising house prices and buoyant demand from first-time buyers. The study found that higher debt levels weighed heavily on mortgage-payers alongside the impact of the government’s austerity read more

3 Nov

The charts that show it’s not THAT hard for first-time buyers

first-time buyers

An increasing share of mortgages are being taken out by 25-34 year olds. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Young people trying to make their way onto the housing ladder have not had much cause for celebration. Earlier in the year, a report from KPMG revealed that the average first-time buyer requires a salary of £41,000 to afford a property, and more than £70,000 in expensive areas such as London. The sense is that it’s never been harder for first-timers to own property. But data from the Office for read more

27 Aug

Nationwide has withdrawn shared equity mortgages for home movers

Nationwide has withdrawn shared equity mortgages for home movers, including applications which qualified under the Help to Buy shared equity loan scheme. Nationwide will continue to lend to first-time buyers under the Help to Buy scheme. The building society said this was a direct response to an earlier move by Halifax to withdraw the availabilty of homemover shared equity and shared ownership mortgages through intermediaries. A spokeswoman said: "First-time buyers make up the majority of all shared read more