Mortgage News, Insights & Advice
All the latest UK mortgage news, insights and advice from the world of mortgage lending and Oportfolio
Nationwide Housing Affordability Report: First-Time Buyer Challenges
The housing market in 2024 offered glimmers of hope for prospective buyers, with Nationwide Building Society’s latest Housing Affordability Report highlighting slight improvements in affordability. However, unfortunately beneath these modest gains lies a sobering...
Can You Borrow Six Times Income With A Helping Hand Mortgage?
The Helping Hand mortgage now potentially allows first-time buyers to borrow up to six times their income. This can increase borrowing capacity by up to 33% more than Nationwide’s standard lending limits, offering a significant boost to those looking at buying their...
UK Mortgage Market Changes: Principality and Metro Bank Updates
In a fast-moving mortgage market, the latest developments from Principality Intermediaries and Metro Bank signal yet more turbulence for borrowers and brokers alike. Principality’s decision to withdraw several residential mortgage products and Metro Bank’s upcoming...
Using Rental Income For A Mortgage With NatWest
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
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,...
HSBC Increases 53 Mortgage Product Rates Amid Economic Uncertainty
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...
Santander Mortgage Rates Slashed While Virgin Increases Fixed Deals
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...
Metro Reduces UK Buy-To-Let Mortgage Rates As TSB Hikes Them
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...
Barclays Introduces New Maximum Age For Mortgage Applicants
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,...
Energy Efficiency Report Shows Opportunities and Challenges for Buy-to-Let Investors
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...
Abi Muazu From Barclays Mortgages Shares Her Thoughts
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...
Halifax Increases 2-Year and 5-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
Halifax announced yesterday an increase in interest rates across its 2-year and 5-year fixed mortgage products. Borrowers will see rate hikes ranging between 0.11% and 0.24%, effective immediately. The changes come as part of a broader shift in mortgage pricing, with...
Capital Gains Tax Changes: What It Means For Landlords And Investors
In recent months, landlords have been anxiously following developments around potential changes to Capital Gains Tax (CGT), fearing further strain on an already challenging buy-to-let market. This apprehension comes at a time when the market is facing serious...
What to Expect From 2025 Mortgage Interest Rates
Recently, Jade Pinkerton, senior mortgage and protection advisor at Oportfolio Mortgages attended the Coutts and Savills Market Update webinar. As expected, interest 2024 and 2025 mortgage interest rates and differing predictions were discussed in great detail....
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...
We're Here to Help
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.
