Financial Guides
Share this..
Related stories
Mortgage costs continue to fall
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has today confirmed that the cost of UK mortgages has fallen to a five-year low. The percentage of income required to cover the average mortgage payment has now fallen to 12% which will bring more and more people into the mortgage market and hopefully improved demand for property. While it has to be said that the average household income has also fallen ove...
Read MoreMortgage activity slows
Mortgage lending in the UK is beginning to show signs of slowdown, the latest figures have shown.The apparent "stabilising" of demand comes on the back of interest rate rises in August and November in 2006; and January and May this year.According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), gross mortgage lending in April was £28.8 billion, down nine per cent from March's £31.7 billion total.But th...
Read MoreLifetime mortgages grow in importance
Nearly 25 per cent of mortgage advisers anticipate that lifetime and equity release mortgages will continue to grow in importance in the next five years, according to a new survey. The report by Prudential also shows that while managing inheritance tax and making plans for retirement loom largest in people's list of worries, the ease with which an equity release product can be understood is just...
Read MoreScotland bucks trend for mortgage fraud
Mortgage fraud in the UK quadrupled in the first six months of 2010 although it appears that the trend may be very different in Scotland. Figures from KPMG indicate that only six cases were brought before the Scottish courts, with a combined value of £3 million, against 12 cases with a value of £19.5 million in the first half of 2009. So is Scotland bucking the trend? While there's no doubt t...
Read MoreMortgage activity collapses in January
Despite high hopes that the UK property sector was indeed returning to growth, these hopes were dashed in January with news of a 49% reduction in the number of home loans issued in the UK. It would appear that the stamp duty holiday introduced by the government in 2009, which ended in December 2009, led to a surge in property acquisitions towards the end of 2009. After the stamp duty holiday ended...
Read MoreWhy are we seeing more mortgage frauds than ever before?
Over the last few months we have seen a number of high-profile mortgage frauds before the UK courts with an alleged £50 million mortgage fraud announced only last week. It would appear on the surface at least that we are now seeing more and more mortgage frauds than ever before but is this really the case? The truth is that when the UK property market was booming we saw very few problems with...
Read MoreUS government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
News that government has come to the rescue of the ailing US mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has been well received in the US but prompted concerns that the credit crunch is far from over. It seems that the rate of mortgage defaults and liquidity of the markets was at risk which is why the US authorities decided to act now. So what does it mean in the short, medium and longer term?...
Read MoreLandlords invest mainly in fixed-rate deals
Although recent a study has shown that most buyers are split almost exactly in half when choosing between a variable or fixed-rate mortgages, landlords are not so indecisive, according to research.According to Paragon, as many as 70 per cent of buy-to-let investors have opted for fixed-rate deals, safeguarding themselves against a much anticipated rise in the interest rate.Even though fixed-rate m...
Read MoreFour building societies offer new 5pc mortgages
For those looking for a cheap mortgage deal, October marked a significant step in the right direction, when the second stage of the Governments’ Help to Buy scheme was launched three months early. However, four UK building societies have now launched 5pc mortgage deals, offering potentially cheaper alternatives to the Government-led initiative. All of the building societies offering the deal...
Read MoreHalifax house price index released
House prices fell last month, with the average property now costing £197,000 in the UK.The total drop in Halifax's latest index came to 0.3 per cent, meaning that the annual rate of inflation has been brought down to 4.2 per cent.However, far from presaging the beginnings of a severe slowdown for 2008, the chief economist at the mortgage provider claimed that the outlook remained steady."Whilst t...
Read More