Mortgage News, Insights & Advice
All the latest UK mortgage news, insights and advice from the world of mortgage lending and Oportfolio
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...
Buy-to-Let Investment: Is It Still A Good Idea?
This week, senior mortgage and protection advisor at Oportfolio Mortgages Jade Pinkerton attended the latest Coutts Bank and Savills Market Update webinar. One hot topic of discussion was the UK buy-to-let market, and whether it was still ‘worth it’. In this blog, I...
Is Now a Good Time To Buy Residential Property?
This week, senior mortgage and protection advisor at Oportfolio Mortgages Jade Pinkerton attended the latest Coutts Bank and Savills Market Update webinar. Many topics were discussed, but one of particular interest was the questions “Is now a good time to buy...
Interest in shared ownership rising
For many years, shared ownership was a rather specialist and quite uncommon means of purchase as most people understandably want to purchase an entire property rather than part of a property! However, as house prices have increased by 4.3% on average every year since 2011, it is becoming more and more difficult for people to both save enough deposit to buy a property and earn enough money to meet the mortgage lending required to purchase a whole property.
Deposit unlock scheme gives new hope for home buyers
Over the last few years there has been a lot of talk around deposits or, more specifically, the struggles that new buyers go through to save a deposit. With banks and building societies restricting lending and becoming seemingly more demanding when it comes to customer cash contributions, new buyers have become disillusioned with the whole idea and feel penalised by banks, building societies and home sellers in favour of older, more experienced purchasers.
Mortgage borrowing at the end of 2021 – Our take
Official figures release by the bank of England shows that both gross and net borrowing figures dropped across the board in December 2021. With January 2022 figures still to come, what can we say about this?
New Build – Answering questions you need to know
The UK government has pledged to try and build 300,000 new homes every year by the mid-2020s. In this blog we will go through some of the most common questions people have when they first start looking at new build homes.
Clients with credit issues are rejected by their bank
Our clients were looking to buy a property together and had put in an offer which had been accepted. Thinking it would probably be the easiest option, they went direct to their own bank to seek a new mortgage however our clients had some financial difficulty in the past and as a result they had defaults and missed payments on their credit files. When their bank ran a credit check on the clients it failed due to the adverse credit in the background and their bank was unable to offer them a mortgage.
Shared Ownership Misinformation Case Study
Our client and her partner found an ideal property through a large house builder on a shared ownership basis and was looking forward to the prospect of owning her first real home. However, despite the excitement they both felt, they were also extremely nervous as she had been told plenty of conflicting information about the best way of getting a mortgage by the builder, her friends, and her own internet research.
Deposit – What will I need?
Deposit. Probably the most common word you hear during the house buying process and, perhaps the one that makes people the most apprehensive. With any property purchase, unless you are lucky enough to buy in cash, you will need some form of property finance loan such as a mortgage. And, with any kind of mortgage, you will normally need to contribute some of your own funds towards the purchase.
Halifax reports record number of first-time buyers
2021 was the most first-time buyer saturated year in at least 10 years according to Halifax intermediaries coming off the back of a year of pandemic uncertainty.
Credit score – Does it really make a difference?
Perhaps the oldest question in the book of mortgages, do I need a good credit score to get one? For years people have avoided getting a mortgage because of their ‘less than perfect’ credit score and hundreds of thousands of people have missed out on some perfect properties due to black and white mortgage lenders and inexperienced advisors.
Mansfield Building Society joins Primis network
The Nottinghamshire based building society, which has been managing its customers finances and lending money in the UK since 1869, has joined the lender panel of Primis meaning that Primis advisors and brokerages will now have access to The Mansfield’s range of residential and buy-to-let mortgage products.
Uninhabitable property gives buyers nightmares
Our clients owned a residential property that they would be selling to try and purchase their dream home. Unfortunately, the new property needed a major upheaval to make it liveable for the clients and their family.
Cladding on flat causes client to change his plans
Our client and his partner both owned separate flats and their intention was to sell both and use the joint equity to purchase one single property for them both to live in. Our client’s partner sold her property very easily however he was unable to sell his property due to it having cladding.
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