In a potential sign of a bit of market stability, Barclays and Bank of Ireland have both announced significant reductions in their fixed mortgage rates, a few weeks after the UK Government unveiled its latest budget. This comes after a turbulent few months and lets be...
Welcome to our latest interview with Ashley Filby, an Independent Financial Planner at Insight Financial Associates. Insight is renowned for providing tailored financial solutions that help all kinds of clients with all kinds of financial advice needs. With a wealth...
Landlords and property investors have seemingly received a bit of a boost this morning as BM Solutions (Birmingham Midshires) announced an increase in their maximum loan-to-value (LTV) for buy-to-let mortgages to 80%. From tomorrow, you will be able to get a 20%...
In a world where we are all encouraged to be more environmentally friendly, we are constantly looking at ways of reducing our carbon footprint and preserve the world for future generations. One of the major ways that people are looking at doing this, is by making...
In a period that is quickly becoming known as the 2023 lender bidding wars, mortgage lenders are competing with each other on a daily basis to try and secure mortgage business, after a slump at the end of 2022. Lenders are competing with each other by dropping...
The people of 2023 are a considerate bunch. I don't mean to sound insincere with that statement if it sounds that way! Global warming, climate change, energy efficiency and the like is a very hot topic in 2023 and people are becoming more and more conscious about...
New data released by mortgage lender Halifax claims to show that a massive 63% of first time buyer mortgages taken out in 2022/23 are in joint names rather than a sole purchase. That means that just 37% of first time buyers are taken out by a single person on their...
This blog comes from Oportfolio Mortgage's Senior Mortgage and Protection Advisor Jade Pinkerton. I had an appointment yesterday with some clients and it was an interesting conversation to say the least. We discussed many things, but one thing in particular was quite...
In an email sent out to brokers this morning, insurance advisor LV= have announced that their research has revealed that 5 million UK adults can't afford bills and other day-to-day expenses. In LV='s newly released report, they revealed several statistics that really...
2023 is already shaping up to be a very interesting, and hopefully positive year for mortgages and the property market. Well, let's face it, anything is better than the disaster of the end of 2022. We all know that mortgage rates increased significantly in September...
In part two of our 'Meet the property professional' series, Oportfolio Mortgages spoke to chartered surveyor James Brook FRICS, co-founder of Novello Surveyors. Novello is a RICS chartered surveying firm covering locations across London, the home counties, and...
Although a generally generous mortgage lender and a big name player in the UK mortgage market, Santander has come under criticism in the past for their attitude towards credit commitments when assessing mortgage affordability. However, Santander have recently...
When looking at getting a mortgage as a self-employed person, it can be difficult to get your head round exactly what you need to provide and what the mortgage lenders will need to see. For things like product transfers, chances are that the lender is unlikely to ask...
Official figures released by the Bank of England this month shows that UK inflation has dropped for the second month in a row in December 2022. Figures show that inflation was at 10.7% in November and had dropped to 10.5% in December. Not a huge drop but much better...
One of the most important elements of the property purchase or property finance journey, but perhaps the most overlooked. Property surveying is an essential part of the home finance narrative arch, but unfortunately a lot of people are completely in the dark about...
If you have any questions about UK mortgage news or anything you’ve read then please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
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