UK mortgage market still struggling with liquidity
Despite the fact that the number of mortgages available today has increased by 66% since January, up to 2,351 from 1,414, many people are still experiencing problems in obtaining sufficient finance to acquire houses. It seems that 58% of the deals on offer today require a minimum down payment of 25% and only 8% of those available will allow a minimum deposit of 10%.
On the surface it certainly seems as though the UK mortgage market is over the worst but underneath there are significant obstacles for first-time buyers especially. It will be interesting to see the trend in the UK mortgage market in the short to medium term and whether or not the common 25% deposit rate remains in place for the foreseeable future. If this is the case, first-time buyers in the UK are effectively being priced out of the marketplace and ultimately, being the new blood of the sector, there will be problems ahead.
Many people are struggling to understand how the UK mortgage arena can still be struggling when the UK government, via taxpayer funding, has ploughed billions upon billions of pounds into the sector. Surely we should be seeing some results?
Share this..
Related stories
Bank of England handed greater powers on mortgages
02/10/2014 The Bank of England has been granted new powers, which are intended to enable them to help the UK economy avoid another housing bubble. The new powers will allow the Bank to set limits on how much people are allowed to borrow when purchasing a home. They said this will be based on a ‘loan-to-income’ ratio, which is likely to be set at 4.5 times a household’s annual income....
Read MoreTracker mortgage packages return to favour
While it is very difficult to find a mortgage Tracker fund with the same terms and conditions as those seen just a few weeks ago, the reduction in the UK base rates has seen many mortgage providers return to the market with a headline low interest-rate figure. However, this does not hide the fact that many mortgage lenders in UK have doubled their profit margins on these deals by increasing the ac...
Read MoreMixed signals from the UK mortgage market
June saw an increase of 15% in mortgage advances which rose to £13.1 billion, the highest level since December 2009. This traditional seasonal boost to the UK mortgage market is a welcome piece of good news for the industry which has been struggling to push ahead over the last few months. It will be interesting to see whether this short-term pickup in mortgage advances continues for the rest of t...
Read MoreNationwide increase mortgage tracker rates
Those who have followed the UK financial rescue package closely will know that one of the conditions of the deal was the fact that UK base rate reductions would be passed onto the consumer immediately. Well, if the Nationwide is anything to go by this is not happening as yet with increases in their low deposit and higher deposit tracker mortgages.
When you consider these moves in t...
Is there enough competition in the UK banking sector?
Alistair Darling this week suggested that the UK banking sector was short on competition and the government is looking to bring in new entrants to the market. This has raised the question as to whether there is really sufficient competition in the UK banking industry and if not, what can the government do about it?
There is no doubt that, while the influence of the likes of Lloyds b...