Data released by HMRC this month has revealed that official statistics show property transactions were down in February 2023 compared to the same time period in February 2022. A property transaction is both the sale and purchase of property in the UK, reflecting the...

Teachers building society, as you can probably guess by the name, is a specialist mortgage lender who offer loans for teachers and other professionals in education. Recognising that mortgages for teachers in some cases could be tricky, Teachers B/S was founded in 1966...

In March 2023 team Oportfolio attended the PRIMIS Mortgage Network's annual conference and recognising excellence awards ceremony in Telford. Every year, PRIMIS hosts a day-time conference where mortgage and protection brokers from the network are invited to come...

The hottest finance topic in the UK at the moment is changing mortgage rates. Will they go up? Will they go down? To many, it does seem like mortgage lenders are changing their minds on a daily basis. Just as we thought the market was recovering from the substantial...

Let's face it, it's our biggest nightmare. Losing a large part of, if not all of your income if you find yourself unable to work. This applies to both employed people and self-employed people. However, shocking research shows that a disproportionate amount of employed...

In 2010, a new bank appeared on the UK high street. The first new high street bank in the UK in around 150 years in fact! With a big blue, white and red sign, people couldn't help but stop and see what the new 'Metro Bank' was all about. As you can probably guess,...

New Clydesdale Bank buy-to-let criteria changes have been announced this week. In a message to all subscribing brokers at the beginning of the week, the Scottish based bank announced that they would be making a major change to their buy-to-let criteria that would...

NatWest mortgages have announced that they will be increasing their overpayment allowance on their mortgage products, meaning that borrowers will have more of an opportunity to pay back their loan quicker and sooner without incurring any extra fees. Here is a...

Shocking research by mortgage lender Coventry Building Society has revealed that despite recent stamp duty cuts and changes to the rules, London based home purchasers are paying significantly more stamp duty than any other area of the country. So, what is stamp duty?...

2022, going in to 2023 has been an incredibly difficult time for many people. The current economic crisis that we find ourselves in has tightened a lot of people's purse strings, eaten up savings, and has unfortunately left many worse off than they were before. As a...

As we reach then end of the first week of March 2023, the mortgage market has already seen a lot of changes coming in from mortgage lenders. Not all of them positive! Unfortunately a few lenders have started to increase their mortgage rates again, despite reducing...

Statistics recorded and released by the Bank of England show that mortgage approvals on average have slumped and fallen for the fifth month in a row. This means that more mortgage applications, which would normally go through to offer smoothly, are being declined or...