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

Santander Mortgage Rates Slashed While Virgin Increases Fixed Deals
Amid recent economic policy shifts, Santander and Virgin Money have made notable changes to their mortgage rates, offering contrasting options for UK homebuyers and investors. Santander is reducing rates across its fixed-rate residential and buy-to-let mortgages, with...

Metro Reduces UK Buy-To-Let Mortgage Rates As TSB Hikes Them
October has truly been the month for rate instability in my opinion. None of us wanted rates to fluctuate as much as they have over the last month or so, and I don’t think that I was the only one who thought that we might at least enjoy some stability until the end of...

Barclays Introduces New Maximum Age For Mortgage Applicants
This morning, Barclays Mortgages has announced a new set of age-related criteria for its residential mortgage offerings, hoping to simplifying the mortgage application process for older borrowers. The changes, establish new guidelines for maximum age limits,...
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...
What happens to me financially if I can’t work?
In an uncertain economy, it’s understandable that people might worry about job security and what happens if they suddenly find themselves out of work through redundancy or the sudden collapse of the company they work for. What people don’t always think about or plan...
Moving house? It’s all in the details
Given everything that’s been going on in the housing market over the last four months, it may be that you’re looking at the various factors at play and thinking that perhaps now is a good time to take the next step on the housing ladder. With the recent announcement...
4 good reasons to move house now
There’s no doubt that lockdown has been a time of great stress and worry for many people as fears over finances, job security and, most important of all, the health of loved ones added up to create the most uncertain of times in recent memory. There is no doubt, too,...
What does the stamp duty holiday mean for you?
Last Wednesday (July 8th 2020) the Chancellor the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, announced a sweeping change to the rules around Stamp Duty – or Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) to give it its full title. When the property sector was reopened in May, there were fears that the...
Buy-to-Let in the post lockdown market
The UK property market has now been open again for six weeks following its enforced two-month suspension during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown and, with the easing of government restrictions on property transactions, the buy-to-let (BTL) market has also begun to...
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