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.

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.

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.

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%.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.