Top tips for saving up a house deposit January 8, 2016 Four out of five Britons under 30 would prefer to own their own home, rather than rent, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, but in London, that’s easier said than done. Home ownership is at its lowest level in 25 years and property prices have risen to about six times the UK’s average annual [...]
Peer to peer mortgage lender LendInvest hits £500m mark January 8, 2016 LendInvest, the peer-to-peer mortgage provider, has reached a new milestone: it has lent more than £500m in short-to-medium term mortgages. In the first week of 2016, it processed a £5m loan in London, taking the total lent to £501m. The site was the first crowdfunding platform for residential and commercial mortgages and since launching in May [...]
The Treasury could be about to return £17bn of Bradford and Bingley assets to private ownership January 6, 2016 A sizable part of the Bradford and Bingley (B&B) mortgage book could be about to be sold off in what could be the biggest ever sale of financial assets by a British government. The government is reportedly working on plans to offload a £17bn tranche of the bailed out mortgage lender. A spokesperson for UK [...]
Buy-to-let tax hike: Our guide to the government’s plans to raise stamp duty on second homes – with rules to cover joint owners, landlords, investors and overseas property owners January 6, 2016 Details of the government’s plan to raise stamp duty on purchases by homeowners with more than one property were released over the festive period. Simply, it will be a 3 per cent surcharge on each stamp duty land tax band when an additional residential property is bought by someone who already owns a home. With the [...]
Strong mortgage market takes total UK lending growth to seven-year high January 4, 2016 Mortgage lending is climbing at its fastest pace since 2009 with total UK lending now growing at its fastest rate for seven years. Total mortgage lending in the UK climbed by £3.9bn in November, up 2.5 per cent on November 2014, according to figures released by the Bank of England this morning. “Lenders’ appetite for new [...]
SME health check: What 2016 holds for UK firms January 4, 2016 The past year has seen the continuation of steady UK growth alongside a degree of political stability after the re-election of the Conservative Party with a majority in May. The result is that business confidence in general is positive. But what of SMEs in particular? And what could 2016 bring? First, we’ve seen a huge [...]
EU referendum: Challenger bank boss says smaller UK lenders would be better off outside of the EU December 20, 2015 The boss of a leading challenger bank has said that Britain's smaller lenders may be better off if British voters back leaving the European Union. Paul Lynam, chief executive of Secure Trust and head of the British Bankers' Association (BBA) challenger bank panel, told City A.M. over the weekend: "Arguably a Brexit would put the UK in more control [...]
Treasury is considering giving more powers to Bank of England over the buy-to-let market December 17, 2015 The Treasury is looking for feedback on giving the Bank of England more powers to control the housing market. Treasury officials announced today that they have opened a new consultation on the powers the Bank should have over the UK buy-to-let mortgage market in particular. The Bank's financial policy committee (FPC) is responsible for identifying, monitoring [...]
Mortgage lending leaps as buy-to-let investors rush to buy December 17, 2015 November’s mortgage lending figures rose 23 per cent on last year, showing signs of a stabilising recovery in the housing market, figures published this morning showed. The Council of Mortgage Lenders' (CML) November report showed gross mortgage lending rose to £19.9bn last month, nine per cent lower than October, but up on last November's £16.1bn. Mohammad [...]
Osborne must deliver on challenger pledge December 17, 2015 Two years ago, chancellor George Osborne said that the British banking system was verging on oligopoly – and needed a “reset”. “One of the prices we are paying for the financial crisis is that our banking sector is now dominated by a few big banks,” he said. “I want new faces on the high street. [...]