As head of content and marketing here at Oportfolio Mortgages, my job is to keep you, our clients, up to date and informed about the latest market news and trends. I am pleased to report to you in this article some interesting new data released by HMRC around property...
Louis Mason
Swap Rates Decline, Boosting Homebuyer Affordability In The UK
Recent research from Octane Capital has revealed a promising forecast for mortgage rates in the UK. The study, which analysed average swap rates over 30 and 60-day periods, indicates that swap rates have started to decline. This shift could herald a significant...
Nationwide Cuts Mortgage Rates Below 4%, Leading Market Shift
Nationwide Building Society has announced a significant reduction in its mortgage rates, with the lowest rate now dipping below 4%. The mutual lender has reduced prices by up to 0.25% across its two-, three-, and five-year fixed-rate products, making it the first...
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.
The housing market, what to expect in 2022
This week Zoopla have released encouraging data that shows the housing market is booming again despite the COVID-19 elephant in the room. Incredibly in 2021, one in sixteen privately owned homes having changed hands for various reasons making it the busiest year in the housing market since 2007.
There Are Now 24 Buyers For Every Home
Is your Rightmove search page looking a bit slim? No, you haven’t accidentally put too many bedrooms in the search bar or chose the wrong property type, that is genuinely the number of homes on the market right now.
Specialist mortgage lenders aim to help professionals
Niche lenders such as The Mortgage Lender and Foundation Home Loans are trying new affordability boundaries and products designed to help professionals, self-employed people and people with more complex income sources get a mortgage.
Valuation – Advice and saving clients’ money
Our client was looking to buy his dream home. The estate agents advised that he would need to put forward a good offer to stand a chance of being considered by the seller. When the valuation came back the property was valued at £10,000 less than the agreed sale price meaning that the client would have to make up the difference himself. That’s where Oportfolio jumped in to help.
New lender “Even” launches scheme to rival help to buy
The lender Even has been set up as a new business venture by the founders of the online estate agency Nested with an aim to specifically help out first-time buyers by helping them raising a deposit and also by being more generous with income affordability. The new initiative will act in a similar way to the existing help to buy scheme which has been running since 2013 through the government’s homes England division.
Would you fix your mortgage for 40 years?
Would you keep your car for 40 years? Most people would say no as your car ages and degrades and becomes more and more expensive to keep running. Well, what if your car dealer guaranteed that your car would cost you the same amount every month throughout its 40 years with you? This week Kensington mortgages launched its first long-term fixed rate mortgages, allowing borrowers to freeze their monthly payments for between 11 and 40 years.
Accord scraps minimum income requirements for buy to let
Buy to let mortgages have always made up a significant portion of the mortgage market and as rental growth continues to increase, as we reported last week, more and more people are looking into their options with either creating a property portfolio or possibly just renting out their cherished former home that they can’t bear to part with.
Green mortgages, the way of the future.
Green mortgages are mortgages offered to buyers either as an incentive to buy a more energy-efficient property or to make energy efficiency improvements in their current home. Most green mortgages see lenders offer a more attractive interest rate, or a form of cashback to buyers that you won’t get with standard mortgage products.
Lending from building societies dominates market.
Mortgage lending by building societies such as nationwide and Leeds Building Society has risen by 22% in Quarter 3 of 2021 compared to Quarter 3 in 2020. Building societies now reportedly hold a 23% share of the total mortgage market.
Metrobank Sells Mortgages to Natwest
Metrobank have announced that they have sold a portfolio of owner-occupied residential mortgages to NatWest as of today – Friday 19th of November. The bold decision is thought to have been made so that Metrobank can invest in other more diverse areas of money lending.
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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.