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Yorkshire Building Society has launched two new best buy mortgages for people who only have a 10% deposit of the value of their home.

If you need a little help with up front costs of buying your new home, similar products are also available at 5.19 % fixed for two years or 5.89 % fixed for three years. Both products carry a £495 fee and include a free standard valuation and free legal service for those buying a property, or free standard valuation and £250 cashback for those looking to remortgage.

Tom Girling, product manager for mortgages said: “Both our two and three-year fixed rate deals offer fantastic value to borrowers who have a 10 per cent deposit – an area of the market where only a handful of other lenders are currently striving to offer competitive deals.

“At the Yorkshire, we’re trying to help as many people as possible obtain a mortgage and offering fixed rate loans to borrowers with a 10 per cent deposit is just one of the many steps we have taken to diversify our product range. However, by ensuring we only offer fixed rates in this area we can make sure our borrowers have piece of mind when it comes to their mortgage payments whether they are looking to buy their first property or remortgage.”

High energy prices and the increases in VAT will keep CPI inflation above target over the next 18 months, but it will then move well below 2% as these effects wear off and spare capacity bears down on pricing decisions and wage bargaining.To prevent CPI inflation moving below 1% it says it will be necessary to keep the Bank base rate low at 0.5%  far longer than earlier anticipated.

The Ernst & Young ITEM Club forecasts that the bank base rate could remain at 0.5% until the end of 2013, although this is dependent on the assumption that the impending spending cuts actually come through.
Peter Spencer, chief economic advisor to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, says: “A base rate of 0.5% will begin to look like the new normal.”
He says the fiscal tightening implemented by the new coalition should not choke off the recovery, but it will slow UK economic growth over the next two years.
The chancellor’s five-year plan to cut the deficit while keeping the pace of the economic recovery is very ambitious.
But ITEM Club believes that in the long term it will lead to more sustainable high-quality growth from 2013 because it will be led by business investment and exports, rather than public spending.�
Spencer says: “On the assumption that the government is able to implement the overall reduction of £40bn it set out in the budget, we expect that UK growth will struggle to reach 1% this year but will gradually speed up in the following years to give the UK a high-quality recovery based on trade and investment.”

£13.1bn was advanced for mortgages during June that’s 15% more than in May and the highest level since December, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

However, figures from the Bank of England that showed mortgage approvals dropped in June because of tighter lending conditions and weakening confidence. The number of loans granted was 48,000, compared with 51,000 in May.

“Demand continued to be constrained by the restrictions on mortgage finance. Looking forward, the major UK lenders expect demand for secured lending to be flat over the rest of the year, partly reflecting weak confidence among potential homebuyers.”
Trends in Lending report CML economist Paul Samter concurred, saying: “Our gross lending estimate of £13.1bn in June represents a seasonal pick-up and is higher than June last year, but is still indicative of low levels of activity… Transaction levels are subdued and likely to remain so while access to credit remains constrained.”
Net lending, after mortgage repayments, remains low. The Bank’s data showed that in May net lending was just £1.2bn – lower than in January and February.

Santander has decided to reduce the interest rates on its two and five-year fixed mortgages deals.

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The Financial Services Authority (FSA) wants mortgage lenders to revisit responsible lending and make sure borrowers can afford their mortgages. Read the rest of this entry »

The number of people who own propery worth more than £1m and more has incresed rapidly during the course of the last decade. Read the rest of this entry »

The Bank Base Rate has been maintained at 0.5% for the 15th consecutive month.

The Monetary Policy Committee (mpc) of the Bank of England voted to maintain the Base Rate at its current level amid ongoing economic uncertainty. Read the rest of this entry »

According to research carried out by a leading valuation company,  the number of residential property valuations carried out in the month of June was up 20% on May’s figures, representing a 15% rise year-on-year. Read the rest of this entry »