Mortgage approvals reached a 15-month high while house prices continued to soften. Read the latest UK mortgage market update covering rates, affordability, remortgaging, and property market trends.
Discover how we helped a newly appointed executive secure a £750,000 mortgage while still in their probation period. Learn how lender criteria can make all the difference.
Discover the best ways to add value to your home in the UK, from loft conversions and kitchen renovations to solar panels and garage conversions. Learn which home improvements can increase property value, improve buyer appeal, and which upgrades may not deliver the return you expect.
At Oportfolio Mortgages, we help clients with a wide range of financial and property-related borrowing needs, including mortgages, protection and refinancing. However, some areas of lending require highly specialised advice. One of these areas is equity release. For...
It has been announced today that unfortunately, despite predictions and the Bank of England's best efforts, the UK inflation rate still remains at above 10% (specifically 10.1%). A far cry away from the target inflation rate of 2% that the bank holds and falling...
Historically, choosing a 5 year or 2 year fixed mortgage was quite a straightforward decision to make for mortgage borrowers. Essentially, do you want to keep the mortgage with a competitive rate for a couple of years and then potentially move on to something...
This morning TSB have announced a slew of changes to the products they offer to borrowers, including a new five year fixed rate mortgage at below 4%! Something that most lenders haven't offered since before the announcement of the disastrous mini-budget in September...
2023 has turned out to be very tough year for the average UK resident. With spiralling interest rates and the general cost of living going to unprecedented levels, people are struggling to keep up with their bills and many are defaulting on mortgages, credit cards,...
Following on from our blog post yesterday about Coventry Building Society lowering 90% and 95% mortgage products for first time buyers, Nationwide building society have also announced that they will be reducing rates on their own 90% and 95% mortgage products. These...
Historically it has always been tough to buy your first property as an average first time buyer. Earning enough as a young professional to borrow a large enough mortgage, saving a large enough deposit whilst also paying rent every month, and generally getting your...
What Is An Early Repayment Charge? Most people reading this blog will have heard of an early repayment charge or an ERC. Chances are that you have been confronted with the prospect of having to pay an ERC or have seen it written in the small print on your mortgage...
Mortgage lender Scottish Widows have just announced that they will be introducing some changes to their mortgage income cap for affordability calculations on straight mortgages and remortgages. What does this mean exactly? It means that Scottish Widows will be...
Despite the Bank of England raising the country's base rate to 4.25% at the end of March 2023, it seems that this hasn't really deterred UK mortgage lenders from continuing with rate reductions. Mortgage rates sky-rocketed at the end of 2022 as the Bank of England...
We are only three days into April 2023 and we are already seeing lots of lenders changing and improving their mortgage product offering. We are however also seeing a few lenders who have increased some of their rates. Why are they doing this? As we have already...
In another positive step forward for the UK mortgage market, mortgage titan HSBC have announced that as of Monday the 3rd of April they will be reducing rates on all of their initial rate products. This great move forward for the lender comes after a period of...
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.