Mortgage News, Insights & Advice
All the latest UK mortgage news, insights and advice from the world of mortgage lending and Oportfolio
New Skipton First Time Buyer Mortgage Range
Skipton Building Society has today announced an exciting new range of mortgage products aimed specifically at first-time buyers, offering greater flexibility and accessibility in an increasingly challenging property market. This new range comes at a time where first...
HSBC Maximum Mortgage Lending Limits Increase
HSBC has today announced an increase in its maximum loan-to-value (LTV) lending limits for residential mortgages. The changes, effective from today, apply to all new-build properties and flats, including non-new-build flats, across the UK. In this news article I will...
What Is A Gifted Deposit & Do You Have To Declare It?
When purchasing a property, securing a sufficient deposit is one of the most significant financial hurdles you’ll encounter. Saving a large enough deposit, especially when you are having to pay rent and bills at the same time. Can be very difficult. For many, this...
95% Mortgages The Cheapest They Have Ever Been
According to financial information company Monefacts, 5% deposit mortgages are currently cheaper than they have ever been in the history of their recording. In rates terms, the average interest rate for a 95% mortgage on both a 2 year fixed period and a 5 year fixed period are at an all-time low.
Remortgages blew it out of the water in November 2021
Incredible new data released by Twenty7Tec this month shows that November 2021 was the busiest month for mortgage searches since March 2021 with remortgages dominating at almost 50% of all mortgage searches.
How Does A Self-Build Mortgage Work?
The government has announced that this winter they will launch the all new ‘Help to Build’ scheme, available to people looking to get stuck in and build their own home.
MetroBank Boosts Buy-to-Let Mortgages
Rental growth has increased exponentially in the past year, and we believe that now is a better time than any to consider purchasing or remortgaging a buy to let. MetroBank have today announced that they will be changing their BTL loan to values to 80%, up from their previous limit of 75%.
Nationwide makes changes to its criteria for extra income
Starting from the 2nd of December, Nationwide building society have re-evaluated and revitalised their criteria for bonuses, commission, and overtime income on pay slips. The new changes to these things mean that more income will be considered when assessing a borrower’s affordability.
Home Improvements That Add Value to Your Property
Making improvements to your house or apartment can be an exciting process, especially when you finally get the chance to make your own mark on a property and it really becomes YOUR home. Making improvements can also add a great deal of value to your home. From...
The housing market, what to expect in 2022
This week Zoopla have released encouraging data that shows the housing market is booming again despite the COVID-19 elephant in the room. Incredibly in 2021, one in sixteen privately owned homes having changed hands for various reasons making it the busiest year in the housing market since 2007.
There Are Now 24 Buyers For Every Home
Is your Rightmove search page looking a bit slim? No, you haven’t accidentally put too many bedrooms in the search bar or chose the wrong property type, that is genuinely the number of homes on the market right now.
Specialist mortgage lenders aim to help professionals
Niche lenders such as The Mortgage Lender and Foundation Home Loans are trying new affordability boundaries and products designed to help professionals, self-employed people and people with more complex income sources get a mortgage.
Valuation – Advice and saving clients’ money
Our client was looking to buy his dream home. The estate agents advised that he would need to put forward a good offer to stand a chance of being considered by the seller. When the valuation came back the property was valued at £10,000 less than the agreed sale price meaning that the client would have to make up the difference himself. That’s where Oportfolio jumped in to help.
New lender “Even” launches scheme to rival help to buy
The lender Even has been set up as a new business venture by the founders of the online estate agency Nested with an aim to specifically help out first-time buyers by helping them raising a deposit and also by being more generous with income affordability. The new initiative will act in a similar way to the existing help to buy scheme which has been running since 2013 through the government’s homes England division.
Would you fix your mortgage for 40 years?
Would you keep your car for 40 years? Most people would say no as your car ages and degrades and becomes more and more expensive to keep running. Well, what if your car dealer guaranteed that your car would cost you the same amount every month throughout its 40 years with you? This week Kensington mortgages launched its first long-term fixed rate mortgages, allowing borrowers to freeze their monthly payments for between 11 and 40 years.
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