Mortgage News, Insights & Advice
All the latest UK mortgage news, insights and advice from the world of mortgage lending and Oportfolio
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New Barclays Mortgage At 3.71% Announced
A new Barclays mortgage product at 3.71% has been announced this week, becoming the latest in quite a few recent announcements from big UK mortgage lenders who are all dropping their rates below 4%. In recent weeks there has been a mortgage 'rate war' or sorts which...
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NatWest Buy-To-Let Mortgage Rates Come Down 0.60%
NatWest buy-to-let mortgage products have been hit by some significant rate reductions this morning, giving a boost to both current and aspiring buy-to-let landlord investors. Over the last few years the buy-to-let market has taken a bit of a beating to put it...
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Santander Mortgage Rates Below 4% Announced
This morning Santander joined the bandwagon of UK mortgage lenders dropping their rates below 4%, which is fantastic to see! The new Santander mortgage rates below 4% announced today stretch across their entire mortgage range and are likely to encourage a lot more...
Time’s running out in the race for a Stamp Duty holiday
There’s now just a little over four months to go before the Chancellor is due to slam the door shut on the Stamp Duty holiday that has saved homebuyers up to £15,000 in land tax since June this year. Recent figures from the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA)...
Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor Case Study
In 2019, Our client first came to us at Oportfolio to see how we could help him purchase his dream first home. Like many first-time buyers, our client did not know where to start and did not know what he could afford.
Can’t move? Grow the space you’re in
With the UK now formally in recession for the first time in 11 years, mortgage providers are inevitably becoming more circumspect in how they lend money for house purchases. And that means it’s becoming harder to secure the larger sums needed to move. As the Financial...
Now’s the time to take advantage of the housing market
According to some reports this week, the first signs that the post-lockdown housing boom that began when the government opened up the housing market at the beginning of June 2020 has begun to give way to greater caution. According to the online housing news portal...
The buy-to-let mistakes every landlord should avoid
Despite the uncertainty in the housing market, the prospect of buying a second property – or perhaps a third, fourth or fifth – as a landlord to rent out is still attractive to a lot of people. Recent research comparing the England and London property rental sector...
Turn up the green stuff to make a house a home
Most of us know what it’s like moving into a new house. You came to see it when it was in full swing as someone else’s home and it feels very different when you take your first steps into it as the proud new owner. The seemingly vacuous rooms that seem much bigger...
5 Reasons To Hire A Broker To Find Your Next Loan
There’s barely a single area of our increasingly busy lives where we don’t have the option to do things for ourselves at home in front of a laptop, and the process of choosing a mortgage product is no different. From online grocery shopping to switching your car...
Moving home? Get ahead of the game to get the best deal
Nothing in life stays the same. The plans we make for today and tomorrow can change over time and new plans will need to be made. That’s certainly true when it comes to buying houses. There are all sorts of reasons for moving. It may be that you originally bought the...
Perfect days out close to home
With the school holidays here, summer brings great opportunities to spend time together as a family. But if you’re not careful, family days out in London can come with a weighty price tag. Luckily, in Fulham and Chelsea and beyond there are loads of local things to...
What Happens If We Go Into Lockdown Again?
In March, everything changed in the space of a single weekend when lockdown was announced. On Friday, March 20th, it was very much business as usual as we worked with our many clients on a range of products from mortgages to life insurance policies, and critical...
Learn the lessons of the pandemic and protect your income
If there’s one thing that the Covid-19 pandemic has, or should have, taught us, it’s that just when life seems to be ticking along nicely, things can take a sudden and unexpected turn for the worse. One of the most surprising statistics I’ve read recently, beyond the...
Is it a good time to be moving house?
If you’re thinking about moving to take advantage of low-interest rates and the stamp duty holiday, then recent speculation suggesting the latest recession may impact negatively on mortgage holders could be making you doubt whether it’s a good time to be moving. The...
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