UK house price growth has hit a stumbling block, with a recent report from Nationwide building society revealing a 0.4% fall in average property costs last month compared to March 2024. This dip marks a significant slowdown, dragging the annual rate of growth down to...
Louis Mason
Fascinating UK Uswitch Remortgage Data Trends Revealed
2024 has already proved to be a tricky year for mortgages in the UK. Many borrowers and brokers hoped that we might have left rate rises back in 2023, however this has not been the case. In the last few weeks we have seen many lenders increase their mortgage rates....
How To Become A Property Developer
Thinking of becoming a property developer? Bravo. According to a 2023 article in The Big Issue, there are around 261,000 empty or abandoned homes in the UK. Yes there is a housing crisis in England, but with over 200,000 empty properties in desperate need of...
Buying your first home – broker is best
Last year, despite the pandemic, there were 674,263 houses sold in the UK and a staggering 356,800 of these were bought by first time buyers. Now that is fantastic news! Not only does that show that the housing market is still chugging along at a steady pace, but it...
Bank Of England Takes Centre Stage
In the financial services sector, there is one burning question on everybody’s lips, will the Bank of England raise interest rates? Its not entirely unbelievable that they wouldn’t but it seems that now with inflation rising to the highest levels in 10 years, the BOE need to do something calm the waters before things get out of hand.
Skipton Building Society Looks Forward to 2022
At the beginning of this month Skipton building society hosted a virtual talk given by their key relationships manager Derek Williams and their Head of business development Paul Fenn. The discussion was designed to give brokers and mortgage customers alike a little insight into how Skipton have viewed the past year and what their predictions are looking into the crystal ball forward to 2022 (which is less than a month away!)
Changes To The Santander Mortgage Early Repayment Charge
Since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, a lot of mortgage lenders changed their stances on various parts of their criteria to both protect themselves from any potential negative effects of the lockdowns but also to help loyal existing mortgage customers who may find themselves struggling. Santander was one of these lenders.
TSB are increasing their maximum loan to value
TSB have just sent a message out to all brokers to say that they have increased their maximum Loan to Value (LTV) from 90% to 95% for self-employed and day rate contractor applicants meaning that potential new TSB clients could put down as little as 5% deposit on a new purchase.
Low Rates & Cheaper Products From Virgin Money
The mortgage arm of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group conglomerate Virgin Money, have announced that they are taking the initiative to help the ever-growing number of buyers looking at purchasing under the shared ownership scheme.
Skipton Is Back After The COVID-19 Pandemic
Skipton building society has recently announced that they have finally returned to pre-pandemic criteria for self employed contractors after over a year and a half of restricted and strict lending criteria brought in to avoid any potential risks surrounding the pandemic uncertainty.
95% Mortgages The Cheapest They Have Ever Been
According to financial information company Monefacts, 5% deposit mortgages are currently cheaper than they have ever been in the history of their recording. In rates terms, the average interest rate for a 95% mortgage on both a 2 year fixed period and a 5 year fixed period are at an all-time low.
Remortgages blew it out of the water in November 2021
Incredible new data released by Twenty7Tec this month shows that November 2021 was the busiest month for mortgage searches since March 2021 with remortgages dominating at almost 50% of all mortgage searches.
How Does A Self-Build Mortgage Work?
The government has announced that this winter they will launch the all new ‘Help to Build’ scheme, available to people looking to get stuck in and build their own home.
MetroBank Boosts Buy-to-Let Mortgages
Rental growth has increased exponentially in the past year, and we believe that now is a better time than any to consider purchasing or remortgaging a buy to let. MetroBank have today announced that they will be changing their BTL loan to values to 80%, up from their previous limit of 75%.
Nationwide makes changes to its criteria for extra income
Starting from the 2nd of December, Nationwide building society have re-evaluated and revitalised their criteria for bonuses, commission, and overtime income on pay slips. The new changes to these things mean that more income will be considered when assessing a borrower’s affordability.
We're Here to Help
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.