Mortgage boom grows as house prices keep soaring February 20, 2014 BRITAIN’S housing boom grew again in January as mortgage lending hit new post-crisis highs, the Council of Mortgage Lenders reported. The boom in lending came along side soaring prices – in London the average house cost £450,000 in December, up 12.3 per cent on the year. The intense pressure in the market could lead the [...]
Nationwide seizes market share February 20, 2014 THE NATIONWIDE is grabbing more current account and mortgage customers from the big four banks, the building society revealed yesterday. The growth pushed up profits as the lender’s interest margins improved. Nationwide made £21.6bn of mortgage loans in the nine months to December, up 34 per cent on the year. The growth is faster than that in [...]
January mortgage approvals up over a third from a year ago February 20, 2014 More fuel to stoke house price fear fires this morning, with added evidence that market activity started 2014 very much on the front foot. Mortgage approvals hit their highest level in six years in the final quarter of 2013, averaging 70,000. And in January, they were up 33 per cent year-on-year. According to figures from [...]
RBS to pay $275m to settle US mortgage lawsuit February 19, 2014 RBS has agreed to pay $275m (£164m) in cash to settle a US class action lawsuit brought by pension funds accusing it of misleading investors in the sale of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The case was brought in 2008, and concerned the packaging and sale of 14 MBS deals known as “Harborview”. The lender was accused [...]
Green light for Paragon to join banking market February 18, 2014 RADICAL new rules to bring more competition into the banking market paid off yesterday as Paragon Bank became the first lender to get a new licence under the system. It is only the second new licence to be awarded in more than 100 years – the first was Metro Bank in 2010. Paragon Bank will [...]
Stamp duty is feeding the growing bubble in London’s house prices February 16, 2014 SUPPORTERS of financial transaction taxes (FTT), often known as Robin Hood taxes, claim that they can make markets safer. But a look at London’s frothy housing market makes this argument difficult to sustain. FTTs remove liquidity from markets, making bubbles more likely to form. And it looks like London house prices are booming thanks to [...]
Housing boom as deals near pre-crisis high February 13, 2014 HOUSE sale volumes hit their highest level in seven years in January, and are now just four per cent below the average seen in the boom years of 2000 to 2007, according to figures out today from LSL Property Services. Last month 73,000 properties changed hands, rocketing up 67 per cent compared with last January. [...]
Surveyors say house shortage is lifting prices February 12, 2014 A SHORTAGE of homes is forcing up house prices across the whole of the UK, according to a leading survey published this morning. The alarming figures follow a separate data release yesterday which showed mortgage-lenders ramping up loans to first-time buyers who are anxious to get on the housing ladder. Demand in the market appears [...]
Lending to first-time buyers rocketed 37pc at end of 2013 February 12, 2014 Better economic conditions and Help to Buy prompted more and more Brits to take steps to become home owners at the end of 2013, according to new data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). Lending to first-time buyers jumped 37 per cent in December from a year earlier. Paul Smee, CML director general, said [...]
New regulation to put brakes on mortgage lending in year ahead February 11, 2014 A TRIPLE whammy of regulation is likely to significantly restrain growth in the mortgage market, which remains subdued in comparison to pre-crisis activity. According to research released by the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) today, the onset of three new regulatory schemes will significantly dampen the mortgage market. The Mortgage Market Review begins this year, [...]