Mortgage News, Insights & Advice
All the latest UK mortgage news, insights and advice from the world of mortgage lending and Oportfolio

Barclays Bank Edges Closer To Sub-4% Mortgage Rates
Barclays Bank has today announced significant reductions to its mortgage rates, offering potential relief to both homebuyers and remortgagers as 2024 comes to an end. The latest changes see Barclays potentially moving closer to the much-anticipated sub-4% mortgage...

NatWest Reduces Residential Mortgage Rates Across Multiple Products
NatWest has this morning announced significant rate reductions across its portfolio of mortgage products. The changes, effective immediately, span both residential and buy-to-let (BTL) markets, providing borrowers with more competitive options amid ongoing economic...

In Conversation With Heena Sandhu From Guardian
Welcome to our exclusive interview with Heena Sandhu, business development manager at Guardian, a prominent protection provider that do things differently to other providers. Guardian came to market in 2018 with a single ambition – every family to have protection that...
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.
Accord scraps minimum income requirements for buy to let
Buy to let mortgages have always made up a significant portion of the mortgage market and as rental growth continues to increase, as we reported last week, more and more people are looking into their options with either creating a property portfolio or possibly just renting out their cherished former home that they can’t bear to part with.
Green mortgages, the way of the future.
Green mortgages are mortgages offered to buyers either as an incentive to buy a more energy-efficient property or to make energy efficiency improvements in their current home. Most green mortgages see lenders offer a more attractive interest rate, or a form of cashback to buyers that you won’t get with standard mortgage products.
Lending from building societies dominates market.
Mortgage lending by building societies such as nationwide and Leeds Building Society has risen by 22% in Quarter 3 of 2021 compared to Quarter 3 in 2020. Building societies now reportedly hold a 23% share of the total mortgage market.
Metrobank Sells Mortgages to Natwest
Metrobank have announced that they have sold a portfolio of owner-occupied residential mortgages to NatWest as of today – Friday 19th of November. The bold decision is thought to have been made so that Metrobank can invest in other more diverse areas of money lending.
From shared ownership to fully fledged homeowner
Our client made the initial climb on to the housing ladder by securing a shared ownership mortgage on his first home. After a few years of living in the property he wanted to explore his options with purchasing 100% of the shares in his home, something known as staircasing. That’s where we come in.
Annual rental growth reaches highest level in 13 years.
In newly release figures from property website Zoopla, annual rental growth reached the highest level for 13 years at 4.6% in the third quarter. The average cost of renting a home in the UK, excluding London, now stands at £809 per month, 6% more than a year earlier!
Second Home In Cornwall Case Study
After several years of living the city lifestyle, our client wanted to buy his dream second family home in the idyllic historical coastal county of Cornwall in the Southwest of England. His main concern was that he wanted to keep his current property and didn’t have access to enough personal funds to put down a deposit on the new second property.
Halifax and its subsidiaries SLASH their valuation fees.
A lot of big changes in the mortgage processing world have happened within the last few months but we were all quite taken aback when Halifax announced last week that they would reducing their standard valuation fee across the board. Something that even experienced mortgage professionals did not see coming.
A Christmas miracle for potential new buyers?
The Rightmove House Price Index has released surprising figures this month that show the average house price coming on to the market has reduced by 0.6% compared to last month’s figures potentially encouraging new buyers over the holidays.
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