Starling Bank makes first acquisition in bid to expand lending July 26, 2021 British digital lender Starling Bank has struck a £50m deal for specialist buy-to-let mortgage lender Fleet Mortgages, in the first of an expected series of deals to drive growth. Starling, which last week said it was eyeing an IPO over the next two years, has finalised the cash and share deal for Hampshire-based Fleet Mortgages, for [...]
The tenant fee ban is good news for landlords May 28, 2019 From 1 June, it will be illegal for tenants in England to be charged letting fees, with deposits capped at six weeks’ rent. Anyone who rents their home will see the benefits in the tenant fee ban, with tenants expected to save an average of £400 per move. More importantly, this policy marks the beginning [...]
The next Northern Rock? Metro Bank has had a troubled week May 24, 2019 Could Metro Bank be the next Northern Rock? That’s not a question that any banker wants to hear, but in this case, some self-reflection seems necessary for the young bank. This last week has been nothing if not turbulent for Metro, the UK’s most shorted stock, with conspiracies circulating that it had fallen on hard [...]
Mortgage finance hub Lendinvest targets £500m London listing March 14, 2019 Online property finance marketplace Lendinvest has reportedly appointed advisers for a potential £500m float. Lendinvest has appointed corporate finance firm Lazards to advice on a listing, Sky News reported. It is set to appoint a syndicate of banks for a float that could happen as soon as this year. Sky reports that the banks are [...]
How to use an Isa to invest in peer-to-peer loans March 6, 2019 Since peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms began to enter the market in 2005, savers have used the services to hand out more than £10bn to borrowers. Aside from providing a significant boost to the UK economy, P2P offers attractive interest rates to lenders by cutting the banking sector from the borrowing process. The Innovative Finance Isa [...]
If you’re stuck on which tax-efficient investment scheme to go for, let’s weigh up your options February 27, 2019 At first glance, venture capital trusts (VCTs) and enterprise investment scheme (EIS) funds seem like peas in a pod. They are both government-backed tax wrappers, and they both let you invest in risky young companies. They also come with the same 30 per cent income tax perk, meaning that if you invested £10,000, you would [...]
DEBATE: Should London impose rent restrictions, as suggested in Sadiq Khan’s campaign plans? January 25, 2019 Should London impose rent restrictions, as suggested in Sadiq Khan’s campaign plans? Dan Wilson Craw, director of Generation Rent, says YES. Londoners are paying some of the highest rents in the world. Building more homes will plug the shortage at the root of this, but that will take a decade or more. We need urgent action [...]
November rise in first-time buyers getting on the housing ladder January 17, 2019 First-Time buyers bolstered the UK mortgage market in November, as competitive deals and schemes such as Help to Buy boosted the number of young homeowners in the run-up to Christmas. There were 36,200 new first-time buyer mortgages completed in November, rising 5.8 per cent from the same month in the previous year, according to UK [...]
Five ways to clean up your buy-to-let portfolio in 2019 January 9, 2019 While January is a great time to be making financial resolutions, with many over-spending at Christmas, it’s sometimes best to concentrate on making the most of what you already have. For 2.5m people owning £1.4 trillion of buy-to-let, investment property is the best place to start. It comprises an enormous part of personal wealth, it [...]
First-time buyer mortgage approvals hit 10-year high despite higher UK house prices January 2, 2019 First-time buyer mortgage approvals hit their highest level in more than 10 years in 2018, the latest data shows. An estimated 367,038 first-time buyers took out mortgages last year, up from 362,800 in 2017, according to analysis from Yorkshire Building Society using UK Finance figures. The number exceeded 2007 levels, when 359,000 first-time buyers secured mortgages, [...]