Case Study: Helping a First-Time Buyer Use a Gifted Deposit to Secure a Mortgage This mortgage case study is based on a real client scenario. Details have been simplified to protect client confidentiality. For many first-time buyers, saving a deposit is one of the...
Designing the Perfect London Home: An In-Depth Interview with South West London Interior Designer Hannah Ashe Interior Design Advice for South West London Homeowners For many homeowners, buying a property is just the beginning. The real journey starts when you begin...
In most cases, you’ll need a household income of around £160,000–£200,000 to secure an £800k mortgage in the UK, depending on your deposit size, income structure, and lender affordability rules. Below, we break down realistic salary scenarios, lender calculations, and...
After several years of living the city lifestyle, our client wanted to buy his dream second family home in the idyllic historical coastal county of Cornwall in the Southwest of England. His main concern was that he wanted to keep his current property and didn’t have access to enough personal funds to put down a deposit on the new second property.
A lot of big changes in the mortgage processing world have happened within the last few months but we were all quite taken aback when Halifax announced last week that they would reducing their standard valuation fee across the board. Something that even experienced mortgage professionals did not see coming.
The Rightmove House Price Index has released surprising figures this month that show the average house price coming on to the market has reduced by 0.6% compared to last month’s figures potentially encouraging new buyers over the holidays.
Figures show that the 2021 average house price is now £256,000 and London’s average soars above this at £495,000! These figures can be quite disheartening but don’t fear, there is hope on the horizon.
Official statistics have shown that mortgage arrears across the board have fallen and continue to fall drastically, nearing historical lows according to UK Finance.
Fantastic news for people looking for a buy to let, buying at auction or, purchasing a property that might need a little TLC.
A new report from Nationwide has confirmed everything Oportfolio have been seeing anecdotally in the last few weeks- namely, that the demand for property is far outweighing current supply. This is making for a highly competitive market, especially in the City of London and the surrounding areas.
BTL properties need to achieve a good energy efficiency rating for lenders
After spending the past few years north of the river, we have recently moved to bespoke new offices in Putney. Since 2009, Oportfolio have serviced clients in the local area and further afield but Putney has always played a key role in our story because it was where...
We have recently moved to new offices at St Georges Court in Putney. With the current trend for creating home offices, we thought it would be a good idea to share the story behind the design of our new home in the hope it may provide some inspiration to our clients...
In 2019, Our client first came to us at Oportfolio to see how we could help him purchase his dream first home. Like many first-time buyers, our client did not know where to start and did not know what he could afford.
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.