Barclays has announced a major update to its affordability policy, increasing its maximum residential loan-to-income (LTI) multiple from 5.5x to 6x. This change is significant for borrowers who need a higher income stretch to secure the mortgage they want, especially...
What Is a Mortgage Holiday? A mortgage holiday, also known as a mortgage payment holiday, is a temporary break from making your regular monthly mortgage payments. It’s an arrangement made with your lender that allows you to pause your repayments for a short, agreed...
It sounds simple enough, “We lend up to 5x your income.” But as Santander’s latest market update made clear, these catchy marketing lines can be misleading. In this bite sized blog, we will explore larger income multiple borrowing and what it actually means to people...
Virgin money for intermediaries, the mortgage lending side of the Virgin conglomerate, have announced that they will be making significant rate reductions for some of their mortgage products. These new low mortgage rates are a good sign that mortgages are slowly...
2022, specifically the last few months of 2022, has been a challenging year for everyone and as mortgage professionals we have seen first-hand how 2022 has affected people's finances. A series of rather disastrous financial decisions made by the UK government and...
In a very well received message to all mortgage brokers registered, buy-to-let lender The Mortgage Works (TMW) have announced that they will be the latest in a long line of mortgage lenders who are dropping their rates. In recent weeks, many mortgage lenders have been...
The news we have all been waiting to hear! Finally, 5-year fixed mortgages are below 6% again. The first time this has happened in almost 2 months. Does this signal a drop in all products is on the horizon? Or is this just an anomaly? The average 5-year fixed mortgage...
As a medical professional, you have perhaps one of the most important jobs you can have. It is your responsibility to treat ill or injured people regardless of any personal, political, ideological or any other kind of differences. Your selfless commitment as a doctor...
So, you started off as the document filer in the mailroom straight out of school. With little or no experience in business, you've fought and clawed your way up and learned everything you know along the way from your peers and now you have made it to the top of the...
New data released by researcher QuMind has revealed that a shocking 62% of Britons that they interviewed are concerned about rising mortgage payments or rent payments if their landlord's mortgage and utilities go up. The organisation interviewed a test group of...
This week has already started with a bang, in a positive way! More and more mortgage lender rates are coming down across products and borrowing is finally becoming cheaper. This week alone HSBC, Virgin, Clydesdale, Coventry and Paragon have all already reduced their...
Sometimes income received from employment isn't black and white. By that we mean, sometimes people don't just earn a clear basic flat salary. There are lots of weird and wonderful ways that people earn their money, each unique to their own industry. In this blog we...
In recent months, we have seen a steep increase in mortgage rates with lenders across the board. Although it seems that the dust has now settled and many banks and building societies are now bringing their rates back down slowly, the impact of the rate rises is...
As predicted by us here at Oportfolio and by economists and property finance specialists, the UK has seen house prices fall significantly in the last month. This drop in prices comes after the disastrous announcement of the 'mini-budget' last month by the former...
Being based in London has allowed us to help a large variety of different buyers over the years. From first-time purchasers buying their first nest to property developers needing a loan to construct large multi-unit apartment buildings. One of our specialties in the...
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.