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Alliance & Leicester, one of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders has launched a new two year tracker rate mortgage which will be available from today.

The mortgage product is available to existing mortgage customers and also new mortgage customers via mortgage brokers, branches or Mortgage Direct. It is a two-year tracker mortgage with a current rate of 5.98% (BBR plus 0.98%) which will then revert to Bank Base Rate plus 1.49%. Mortgage Borrowers must have a 25% deposit and there is a £999 arrangement fee. Read the rest of this entry »

House prices in England and Wales have remained unchanged in May and up 1.8% in the last 12 months, the Land Registry announced.

But it said that sales volumes during March were down 50% to the  March 2007 figures, at 53,080. Read the rest of this entry »

More than three million homeowners are wanting  to move house within the next year according to new survey from Alliance & Leicester.

38% of homeowners who have sold a property in the past have, at some point, made improvements with an average spend of £3,000. This trend of improving your home in order to sell continues, with almost 20% of  homeowners stating that they will be making improvements to their home in the next 12 months in order to add value to their home. However, half of all homeowners (50%) are still improving their home to make it a better place to live and to avoid the expense of moving elsewhere. Read the rest of this entry »

Abbey is to reduce the mortgage arrangement fee on all its flexible mortgages from this Friday, 26th June 2008, from £2,499 to £1,499. Read the rest of this entry »

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has defended mortgage lenders against claims by chancellor Alistair Darling that mortgage lenders are taking advantage of home owners by charging them excessive mortgage arrangement fees.

The chancellor attacked the mortgage  lenders that charge massive mortgage arrangement fees anything up to £2,500. Read the rest of this entry »

Demand for rental properties rose by a massive 41% in the last year, reveals research from estate agent Your Move.

The demand for tennants also increased month-on-month with the number of leases starting rising 14% from April.David Newnes, managing director of Your Move, says: “Mortgage finance is hard to come by these days – the rental market is definitely picking up the slack.

“And we’ve seen a considerable number of would-be buyers put house purchase on hold because of the squeeze on their finances. They’re turning to the rented sector while money is tight.”

Your Move says May’s increase in tenant demand is part of a wider picture..

The number of leases that started in 2008 in total is up 34% on the same period in 2007, the trend indicates that landlords are compensating for the lack of affordable housing. Read the rest of this entry »

Mortgage lending showed a slight improvement in April, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

Some 50,000 loans to buy homes were granted in April this year, a rise of over 5,000 from the previous month and the highest level since December 2007.

But the number was still over 36% down compared with the same month last year because of the credit crisis.

The average first time buyer put down a deposit of 12% of a property’s value and borrowed 3.4 times their income.

A spokesperson, for the CML, said that the low levels of lending were going to continue for quiet a time yet.

Monthly house purchase volumes continue to be lower than last year and there will be a further downturn in coming months as recent data has shown.

The credit crunch has caused the banks to reduce lending, especially to those they consider to be more of a risk.

The Bank of England have made extra funds available recently to encourage banks to lend to each other.

First time buyers have felt the effects more than anyone else, and the CML figures show that first time buyers have been asked to put down far larger deposits. Read the rest of this entry »

HBOS, the UK’s largest mortgage lender, yesterday announced that  it expected prices to drop by around  9% this year and also thought that housing purchases would be down 45 per cent this year.

The bank yesterday published the prospectus for its £4bn ($7.9bn) rights issue, said trading was “satisfactory” although mortgage arrears were rising - particularly in its specialist mortgage home loans books.

HBOS shares fell by almost 6% yesterday to 296¾p - close to its 275p rights issue price - amid concerns about arrears and that HBOS might have to write down further assets in its Treasury portfolio, particularly on its exposure to US monoline insurers.

HBOS yesterday wrote down the value of its equity stakes in housebuilders by 50% - or £100m because of the deterioration in the sector in recent weeks.

Robert Law, banks analyst at Lehman, said it “shows worsening trends in mortgage arrears, quality of the treasury portfolio and the first signs of deteriorating cor-por-ate credit quality in the UK. This is a negative read across the UK bank sector.”

HBOS, which is amongst the darkest forecasters on house prices, had predicted in February that prices would be flat in 2008. It revised this prediction to be “mid single-digit” falls in April.

HBOS mortgage arrears jumped to 1.43 per cent of its loan book in May 2008 compared with 1.3 per cent last December 2007.

Andy Hornby, chief executive, stressed this was in line with the bank’s expectations and added that mortgage arrears were actually below the levels seen in June 2006.

“We are coming from an incredibly low base on arrears and the trend is what we forecast,” he said.

He added that HBOS was benefiting from better pricing as it passed on the cost of more expensive mortgage loans to its borrowers. This means its net interest margin - a key measure of profitability - stabilising or even rising in 2009 as it repriced a third of its mortgage book this year.

“There has been so much worry about Bradford & Bingley and we have put in a resilient performance, and this will give people confidence,” Mr Hornby said.

“We will be delivering margin stability - the core underpin of bank profitability in tougher markets.”

Mike Ellis, finance director, told analysts: “We did expect an increase in impairments from what was a very low base. What we said today is that arrears are trading in line with expectations.”

The Royal Bank of Scotland has introduced a new and improved rental cover requirement of 110% for its NatWest buy to let mortgages that have a maximum loan to value (LTV) of 75%.

The new rental cover requirement will be 110% at Bank base rate (BBR) + 1.75% for LTVs up to 75%. Fast-track processing will also be available for below 75% LTV applications. To qualify, applicants must have a minimum income of £40,000 single or joint. Read the rest of this entry »

Latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders show mortage lending slow.

Gross mortgage lending in May was £25.5bn, which was down 2% on Aprils figures and down by 19% on May last year.

The CML said that there had been no signs yet of  mortgage market conditions easing and mortgages becoming more available to the public.

The Halifax the UK’s biggest lender had earlier predicted that house sales would fall by up to 45% this year.

“The next few months will remain very weak for house purchase activity for the funding reasons which are now well rehearsed,” said Michael Coogan, the CML’s director general.

“We still await first signs of the Bank of England’s special liquidity scheme indirectly helping to ease the current logjam,” he added.

With mortgage lending slow it is now better to contact brokers in order to secure the best mortgage available.