Market News Page 2

News on the general housing and mortgage market

Repossessions Down!

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), which represents banks and building societies, said that only 36,200 properties were seized from borrowers who had failed to keep up repayments in 2011. The number of homes repossessed last year fell to its lowest rate since 2007.

Buy to let properties accounted for 5,900 repossessions in 2011 this is up from 4,700 in 2010. Read more

Mortgage Comparison Websites

It seems that nowadays the internet is groaning under the weight of price comparison websites.

Whether someone is in the market for a new mortgage, be it a first time buyer or a re-mortgager it always pays to shop around. They can of course just walk in to a bank or building society and apply for one of their products but this can cost them money they do not necessarily need to spend. Read more

A Helping Hand Offered to First Time buyers

Following the expiry of the stamp duty holiday on the 24^th march 2012 first time buyers are now concerned about having to fork out extra cash on stamp duty.

The first time buyer will now need to find an extra £1,250 to £2,500 depending on the size of their potential property, which is not an insignificant sum if finances are already being stretched. Read more

Hybrid Mortgage

Everyone knows that the base rate will increase at some point, but the big question is when and how fast?

Therefore the key decision for borrowers is how comfortable they will feel in taking a risk that in 2 years time rates will not be significantly higher or starting to rise substantially. Read more

A Rise in Lenders Mortgage Rates

The Bank of England has kept its key bank rate pinned down at 0.5% for nearly 3 years now; this was in a bid to keep borrowing cheap for both individuals and businesses alike.

Therefore it is the ‘fear factor’ in markets that drive up borrowing costs, despite the fact the UK base rate remains unmoved.

Concerns about the euro zone crisis hit in the second half of 2011 and this then made banks suspicious of one another, so the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) steadily rose. Read more

Guarantor Mortgages

Securing a mortgage these days is much harder than it used to be, especially for first time buyers due to:

-          loans with out a deposit, these practically vanished during the credit crunch

-          lenders are offering smaller mortgages and rejecting a higher percentage of applicants

-          interest rates for first time buyer deals do not reflect the low base rate

-          deposits are now required in excess of 10%, which generally requires 5 years worth of savings

The 100% mortgage is back! Well that is as long as a family member is willing to guarantee anything above 75%. Cue a call on the bank of mum and dad. Read more

Advisory Panel Calls for Less Consumer Responsibility

Financial services are an important part of everyday life. Financial products help every household to manage their day to day spending, enabling them to save for the future and also insure against loss.

Despite this, many people still struggle to understand exactly what financial products can do for them. Financial services on a whole are confusing and this is not surprising when there are, for example 2,000 savings products on the market currently. Read more

Couples on Average Wages Struggle to Buy Homes

As a child everyone is brought up to believe that when you grow up you buy a home. However in the current climate a generation is being frozen out of owning a home, due to property prices and high deposits, amongst other things.

David Stubbs, senior economist at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), said this situation was likely to worsen, adding “access to the housing market has deteriorated as the credit crunch and now the euro zone crisis takes hold of the mortgage lending sector”. Read more

Housing Market Renewal Scheme

The housing market renewal or pathfinder scheme, as it was also known, was launched in 2001 by the government. It was a 15 year scheme that was intended to reverse housing market failure in deprived parts of the Midlands and Northern England.

The idea behind the pathfinder scheme was simple; it involved getting rid of cramped flats or smaller terraced houses, especially those with doors that opened directly on the street as many councils believed that people did not want to live in these houses. They then intended to replace them with a house with a front garden. Read more

Mortgage Criteria

The mortgage market has now become it seems one where lenders are creaming what ‘they’ believe to be the best applicants.

These applicants are the ones with a credit sore of 1000, unblemished payment history, minimal credit applications in the last 6 months, which is practically impossible to achieve. Read more

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