London owes a quarter of all housing mortgages April 8, 2014 There's more proof, if anyone still needs it, of London’s runaway dominance of the housing market out today. Data put together by the Council of Mortgage Lenders has shown the top 20 most-mortgaged postcodes are all in London, as well as the vast majority of the top 100. With a total of £649,426,811 in outstanding [...]
Post Office offers 95pc mortgage April 7, 2014 The Post Office yesterday unveiled its new range of mortgages using the Help to Buy loan guarantee scheme. Using the government support it will offer 95 per cent mortgages to house buyers with small deposits saved up. Its two-year loans will be on offer with an interest rate beginning at 4.95 per cent. The new [...]
Aldermore: We have outgrown challenger label April 2, 2014 ALDERMORE’S chief executive yesterday claimed the lender has outgrown the challenger bank label and is a now a well-established player in the market. The bank reported profits of £22.4m in 2013 yesterday, smashing its previous earnings of £1.5m in 2012. Its lending volumes soared by 64 per cent in the year to £3.4bn, which is [...]
Buyers struggle to raise deposit as market soars March 31, 2014 HOUSE buyers across England and Wales are paying the highest proportion of their property’s asking price since 2004, with the average house going for more than 99 per cent of the asking price in London. In March so far, buyers are shelling out 96.2 per cent of property asking prices, according to Hometrack’s assessment of [...]
Carney ready to clamp down on housing bubble March 28, 2014 TOUGHER lending criteria could be in place as soon as June if a housing bubble emerges, the Bank of England’s financial policy committee (FPC) said yesterday. The panel, led by Mark Carney, does not believe a bubble is inflating, but wants to reassure markets it will nip any emerging risks in the bud. From next [...]
Aldermore enters securitisation market in £330m mortgage deal March 25, 2014 CHALLENGER bank Aldermore is selling off £330m of prime residential mortgages in its first ever securitisation, the lender said yesterday. The bank wants to reduce its reliance on the Bank of England’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) and raise funds to increase its lending volumes. Mortgage-backed securities got a bad name in the financial crisis [...]
Only one in 20 buyers not fixing mortgages as rates start to rise March 24, 2014 MORE than 95 per cent of new home buyers are taking fixed mortgages, as the property market surges and interest rates begin to creep upwards, according to mortgage lenders. The Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) says that 19 in every 20 people were choosing fixed rather than variable rate mortgages in February, up from fewer than four [...]
Co-op Bank says it needs a further £400m March 24, 2014 The beleagured Co-op Bank has announced something of a combshell this morning: it needs to find another £400m of capital to cover unexpected costs and charges relating to misconduct and poor documentation. The lender's management has uncovered the costs, which come predominantly from compensation for PPI misselling, poor customer treatment relating to mortgages and breaching [...]
London house prices pull further ahead of regions March 13, 2014 HOUSE prices in the City soared by more than any other London borough, while the capital’s market continued to blast ahead of the rest of the UK, new figures showed yesterday. It came as mortgage lending shot up by more than a third in the last year, led by high loan-to-value mortgages. London prices increased [...]
Homeowners told to switch to fixed deals ahead of rate rise March 5, 2014 THE BANK of England is almost certain to keep interest rates at their historic low of 0.5 per cent today – yet with lenders increasingly expecting a rise to come within the next year, rates on mortgages and credit card are creeping upwards. The average credit card annual percentage rate (APR) has climbed to 18.17 per cent [...]