In a market saturated with one-size-fits-all policies, Guardian has once again raised the bar, and it’s something we at Oportfolio think more people need to pay attention to. Their latest overhaul of both adult and child critical illness (CI) cover proves that when it...
Buying a home on your own can be a daunting but incredibly empowering journey. Whether you're single, recently separated, or simply choosing to go it alone, getting on the property ladder with just your income is absolutely possible. This blog about the process when...
The UK property investment market is constantly evolving, and one of the most notable trends in recent years is the rise in popularity of the limited company buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage. If you're a landlord, property investor, or considering becoming one, understanding...
The North of England isn’t just synonymous with cheap pints, brit-pop and pies anymore! It seems that the North of England is capturing the attention of property investors like never before. Paragon Bank’s recent report, The Factors Driving the Buy-to-Let Market in...
According to the recently released Barclays Property Insights report, UK rental and mortgage payments have surged to their highest level in over a year, with an increase of 6.4% in October 2024. This marks the steepest growth in housing costs since September 2023, yet...
HSBC has announced a huge increase in mortgage rates across nearly all of their lending categories including residential and Buy-to-Let mortgages. It is quite clear that this rate rise from HSBC (one of the UK’s big six lenders) will negatively impact a lot of...
Almost certainly in response to the recent base rate reduction by the Bank of England, Leeds Building Society has announced updates to its mortgage products. Although not one of the typical big six lenders of the UK, Leeds’s new mortgage products definitely offer some...
NatWest has announced this morning that they will be simplifying their criteria for using earned rental income for a mortgage application, for residential purposes. Most mortgage lenders will use earned income from employment and self employment as a means to...
Can mortgages be transferred to another property? That is certainly a question that a lot of people who currently have a mortgage want to know. Getting a mortgage is normally quite a smooth process if you have the right kind of mortgage advice and advisor. However,...
It has been announced today that HSBC has increased mortgage product rates on 53 of its mortgage products, impacting many different areas of residential mortgage borrowing. Some of the customers expected to be impacted by the rate increases are existing customers...
Amid recent economic policy shifts, Santander and Virgin Money have made notable changes to their mortgage rates, offering contrasting options for UK homebuyers and investors. Santander is reducing rates across its fixed-rate residential and buy-to-let mortgages, with...
October has truly been the month for rate instability in my opinion. None of us wanted rates to fluctuate as much as they have over the last month or so, and I don’t think that I was the only one who thought that we might at least enjoy some stability until the end of...
This morning, Barclays Mortgages has announced a new set of age-related criteria for its residential mortgage offerings, hoping to simplifying the mortgage application process for older borrowers. The changes, establish new guidelines for maximum age limits,...
Today, The Mortgage Works (TMW) Nationwide Building Society’s buy-to-let lending only arm released their energy efficiency report for the private buy-to-let rental sector. The latest report from The Mortgage Works explores the energy efficiency of the UK's private...
A couple of weeks ago, our team at Oportfolio Mortgages had the pleasure of welcoming Abi Muazu, business development manager for Barclays mortgages into our Putney mortgage brokerage. As part of our ongoing commitment to building close relationships with mortgage...
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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