Mortgage News, Insights & Advice
All the latest UK mortgage news, insights and advice from the world of mortgage lending and Oportfolio
NatWest Switcher Offer Increases Mortgage Rates and Terms
We've just received an important update from NatWest regarding changes to their mortgage offerings for existing customers looking at switcher products. At the end of 2023 and in the first few weeks and months of 2024, lenders had been reducing rates like they were...
Personal Finance for Women: Quick Tips
Happy International Women’s Day! Our team at Oportfolio is a mostly female run outfit, and they are the best in the industry! Our Senior Mortgage and Protection Adviser Jade Pinkerton has put together some quick finance tips for women when looking at personal...
Skipton ‘Track Record Mortgage’ for Low House Deposit
Skipton Building Society has relaunched a popular mortgage product, the 'Track Record Mortgage'. Originally aimed at first-time potential borrowers looking for a low house deposit loan, Skipton has today announced that the product will now extend to both renting...
Is The UK Economy Growing Or Shrinking?
The UK is currently in, or if not yet very close to a recession after months of shrinking economy and general economic struggles due to various factors. We are all holding our breath and hoping that the measures being put into place by the BOE and the government will...
Mortgage Lending To Fall To Pre-pandemic Levels
Mortgage lending is set to fall to levels not seen since before the pandemic of 2020, according to some experts. 2022 has been, to put it lightly, a disastrous year for mortgages and a difficult year for personal finances in general. The country are still in the dark...
Mortgage Lenders Encouraged To Be More Accommodating
In a move to help mortgage borrowers to cope with their payments during the ongoing financial crisis that the UK finds themselves in, ministers in the government have called for mortgage lenders to be more understanding and accommodating to those struggling. Lenders...
First Time Buyers Are Taking Long Mortgages
When my parents bought their first house in their early twenties, they paid around £40,000 and had a very affordable £400 a month 20 year mortgage. The interest rate was 11% at the time....but that is a different lesson from the history books! The average UK salary at...
House Prices Drop By 2.3% On Average
The biggest news on the property market front is that house prices have dropped in the biggest reduction since the UK financial crisis kicked off. Halifax bank, which regularly releases a house price index, have announced that the average house price has dropped by...
TMW Changes Stress Test To Help Landlords
Buy-to-let mortgage lender TMW have announced that they are making changes to their mortgage affordability stress test. But this time, it looks like they are going to be making it easier for borrowers. A great sign that the buy-to-let mortgage market will hopefully be...
Oportfolio’s Sponsorship of Dare to Hope
Finishing Touch When Oportfolio moved from Fulham back to Putney in 2020, we decided to invest in the decor of our offices. We wanted to create a welcoming environment for our clients and staff. We commissioned an interior designer to advise us on the floor plan,...
Leading Ladies Of The PRIMIS Mortgage Network
Last week, Senior mortgage and protection advisor Jade Pinkerton and Administration manager She-rel Edwards from Oportfolio mortgages joined an exclusive group of mortgage and protection professionals at the PRIMIS mortgage network leading ladies' event in Birmingham....
Twenty7tec November Mortgage Market Update
Twenty7tec has long been a part of the mortgage and protection industry, researching, recording, and offering free of charge statistics and information about finance and financial institutions for borrowers and brokers alike. Regularly they carry out their own...
Help To Buy Deadline Extended
The Help to Buy scheme was a scheme introduced by the UK government in 2013 as a means of boosting the new build property market and to give more people the chance to purchase their dream home. The scheme ran successfully from 2013 until the end of this year when it...
Can You Get A Mortgage If You Have, Or Have Had Cancer?
When someone is diagnosed with a serious illness like cancer, there are a multitude of questions that swirl around people's heads. Am I going to be ok? Will I get better? Will my family be ok? Will I be able to keep earning an income? How will this impact my quality...
The Rise Of The Loft Conversion In London
Take a stroll down any residential street in London, specifically Southwest London for us being based in Putney, chances are that you will stumble across a loft conversion taking place. The tell-tale signs are a large metal structure protruding from the front of a...
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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.
