Mortgage News, Insights & Advice
All the latest UK mortgage news, insights and advice from the world of mortgage lending and Oportfolio
NatWest Mortgages Increase Rates
NatWest mortgages are set to take a bashing this week as the lender announces that their mortgage product rates are due to increase by as much as 0.30%. This is a sharp jolt to mortgage borrowers and frankly to mortgage intermediaries who have all been rejoicing over...
Halifax To Release Mortgages Without Early Repayment Charges
Halifax bank, one of the UK's biggest and most well known mortgage lenders will be releasing some new mortgage products over the next few days, most significantly perhaps, they will be releasing mortgages without early repayment charges. Not only does this mean that...
Where Is The Best Place To Buy Property?
Last week, senior mortgage and protection advisor at Oportfolio Mortgages, Jade Pinkerton attended the latest Coutts and Savills market update webinar. Many interesting property related discussions were held. Perhaps the most interesting and thought provoking...
Are Long Fixed Term Mortgages the Solution?
Traditionally, people purchasing, remortgaging or doing a product transfer on a residential property are advised by brokers and banks to take a fixed term mortgage. A fixed term mortgage means that your mortgage product and rate are fixed in place for a number of...
Average 2-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Now Over 6%
Financial information company Moneyfacts have reported that the average 2-year fixed mortgage rate now stands at over 6% meaning that borrowers looking to get a 2-year fixed rate loan or are coming off their current fixed deal and are hoping to get a new low rate, are...
What Could a 6% Base Rate Mean For Mortgages?
Please note that this is an opinion piece and is purely hypothetical, exploring what could happen. Not what will necessarily happen. This week, several economists suggested that we could see a 6% base rate from the Bank of England within the next 12 months. Despite...
Barclays Mortgage Policy Changes You Need To Know
There have been some recent changes to Barclays mortgage policy announced today, that everyone needs to be aware of. Barclays, like many other lenders of late, have been making major changes to their mortgage affordability and their interest rates. Unfortunately for...
Skipton Remove Their Residential Base Rate Tracker
In a message to brokers this morning, Skipton Building Society have announced that they will be removing their 60% loan to value (60% mortgage) residential base rate tracker products from their lending offerings. They have also announced a complete refresh of their...
Being a First Time Buyer Is Getting More Expensive
It is no secret that being a first time buyer and achieving home ownership in the UK is more difficult than it once was. In the past property prices were cheaper, mortgage lenders were more generous with their affordability checks, and 100% mortgages were commonplace...
Banks Not Accepting Mortgage Applications?
Despite only being six months into 2023, the mortgage market has certainly gone through enough changes and instability for a lifetime! Rates have increased, lenders have pulled rates and made changes to their affordability criteria to make borrowing more difficult....
Buy To Let Stress Tests Getting Even Higher
This morning NatWest Bank have announced that they will be making some major new changes to their Buy to Let stress tests. Meaning that it will become more difficult for Buy to Let landlords to get the level of lending that they need in order to finance their...
TSB Lower Mortgage Rates
In a very surprising move, TSB lower mortgage rates across their residential, buy-to-let and product transfer product offerings. This means that both new borrowers and existing TSB loan owners can get a lower rate with the Edinburgh based lender through specialist...
Nationwide Maximum Loan To Value Increase For Flats
Nationwide Building Society have announced that from the 9th of June 2023, they will be increasing the Nationwide maximum loan to value for non new build flats and apartments. What does this mean exactly? The loan to value of a property is the percentage of a property...
New Mortgage Rates UK and Average UK Rates
Today, both Nationwide Building Society and Bank of Ireland have announced new mortgage rates and products after withdrawing several existing products in the last week. The new products for Bank of Ireland are specifically for their buy-to-let mortgage offerings...
Is the UK Housing Market Improving?
Is the UK housing market improving? There is a lot of conflicting information in the news at the moment about the state of property purchase and sale in the UK. Some people are reporting that property prices are dropping rapidly due to a lack of appetite caused by the...
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