Alliance & Leicester is the latest lender to slash the interest rates charged on almost all of its mortgages by between 0.1% and 0.55%.

The new range of mortgages which is available form today includes a two year tracker rate mortgage at Bank base rate plus 1.99% with no fee up to 85% LTV, and a two year fixed rate mortgage at 6.19%, thats a reduction from 6.64% - up to 75% LTV and with a fee of £599.The latest move follows other lenders which have cut their mortgage interest rates over the last week Cheltenham & Gloucester, Halifax, Nationwide and Abbey being amongst the front runners.

Richard Taylor, head of mortgage products at Alliance & Leicester, said: “We are reducing the majority of the rates across our mortgage portfolio, which is great news for people looking for a new deal.

“These new mortgage products are available to both new and existing customers, with a number of options to choose from, including deals which benefit from no fees, as well as free valuation and legal fees.”

Buy-to-let property investors have been hit by the mortgage credit crunch  according to new figures released from UK lenders.

New buy-to-let mortgages fell to 144,600 in the first half of 2008, an 18% drop compared to the previous six months, and the first fall for over three years.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders said landlords faced the same issues as homeowners during the credit crunch.

Rents are unlikely to fall as demand for BTL rentals remains high.

“We expect the rental market to remain underpinned by strong demand, partly because some people who would like to buy a home are being forced to carry on renting for now,” said CML director general Michael Coogan.

Many buy-to-let investors rely on the wholesale markets, which have dried up during the credit crunch as banks have scaled back on lending to one another.

As a result, the number of new buy-to-let mortgages in the first half of the year fell.

But the decline was not as steep as had been expected in the  mortgage market - which saw a 28% drop in home loans in the first half of 2008 compared with the previous six months.

Buy-to-let mortgages borrowers also had to find a slightly bigger deposit for their homes, in the same fashion as other mortgage borrowers.

The average loan was an 83% loan-to-value offer during the first six months of the year.

The CML data shows that Birmingham Midshires has the highest gross lending in the UK market.

Some landlords have been unable to raise rents in the short-term as mortgage costs have risen, pushing more into the position where they are having homes repossessed.

Some 0.16% - or 1,800 out of more than one million - buy-to-let homes were repossessed during the first six months of the year, up from 0.11% during the previous six months.

Mortgage interest rates are back to the same level they were at in August 2007 at the start of the  UK credit crunch, according to research by price comparison website Moneyfacts.

The average  mortgage interest rate on a two-year fixed deal is now 6.59% - almost the same as 6.56% in August 2007 and down from 7.08% in early July this year.

However, the costs associated with mortgages remain higher than last year.

The best rates are only available to those with large deposits and lenders are also charging higher fees to obtain these deals.

Moneyfacts stated that the average mortgage arrangement fee was now £964 compared with £803 in August 2007.

There is less competition in the UK Mortgage market, with only 3,748 products on offer compared with 13,027 in August 2007.

Borrowers are also required to put down much higher deposits than a year ago. An average of 20% is now the norm, Moneyfacts says.

“The pricing is getting back to where we were a year ago, but the appetite for lending is diminished,” said Darren Cook, a spokesman for Moneyfacts.

While the rates are at similar levels as last year the banks are potentially making more profits on mortgages than a year ago.

Official interest rates, on which fixed mortgage rates are indirectly based, are now 5% compared with 5.75% in August 2007, which means lenders are getting better returns on the products offered.

Abbey, Nationwide and HBOS have been among the lenders that have been cutting their rates.

Lending to homeowners has slumped dramatically in 2008, because the credit crunch has dried up the supply of funds available to banks.

From tomorrow Leeds will cut the rates on its two-year fixed rate mortgages by up to 0.5% on its new product range.

The Leeds has also launched a new range of three-year fixed rate mortgages.A two-year mortgage is available from 5.25%, with three-year products starting at 6.24%.

There will be no higher lending charges on any of the new mortgage products and there are fees free versions also.

Jeff Kirk, corporate relationship manager at Leeds, says: “This suite of products offer outstanding value and take into account the reduction in swap rates which have factored in possible bank base rate decreases.

“We are keen to pass on these reductions to clients who are struggling in the current financial climate with large increases in the cost of living, particularly food, fuel and energy. Read the rest of this entry »

Up to 3.4 million borrowers have been refused at least once for mortgages and loans in the past year and a half, according to GE Money Home Lending data just released.

One in eight of the would be borrowers had to apply four times or more before securing a mortgage or loan and  more than 412,000 could not get a mortgage or loan at all despite repeated attempts and 30% actually gave up trying. Because of this, the mortgage intermediary market has never been as important to consumers, according to the company. Read the rest of this entry »

From tomorrow, Abbey is lowering the interest rate on its two and three year fixed rate mortgages by up to 0.25% per cent.

As a result, two year fixed mortgage deals now start at 5.79% at 70% LTV, while three year fixed mortgages start at 5.99%. Read the rest of this entry »

Gross mortgage lending in the UK  rose slightly in July, rising by 5 per cent compared with last month, although total home loan lending tumbled by over  25 % on last years figures.

According to new statistics from  the Council of Mortgage Lenders, gross lending, including new home mortgages and remortgaging, rose from £23.4 billion in June to £24.8 billion in July.

However, gross mortgage lending in the UK in July fell far short of £34.1 billion in the same month in 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite a rally from the industry the latest round of depressing housing market news confirmed that mortgage lending will reduce by around 20 per cent this year, reflecting the market uncertainty, falling house prices, and rising arrears to home owners, market analyst Datamonitor has warned. In the first six months of this year, gross lending amounted to just £149.5bn, a steep fall of almost 19 per cent from £178bn in the first half of 2007. Datamonitor predicts that lending will shrink to a total of around £294bn in gross lending in 2008, this steep rate of decline easing off to a further 3 per cent fall in 2009. Read the rest of this entry »

The housing rental market boomed as housing sales dropped, according to the RICS Lettings Survey published today.

New buy to let valuation instructions increased at the fastest pace in history as many would-be-sellers found that becoming a landlord is a better option than selling in the current economic climate.

Around 43 per cent more chartered surveyors reported a rise than a fall in Buy to Let instructions compared to 35 per cent in the previous quarter. Equally both new instructions to let houses and flats increased at the fastest pace in history with 47 per cent and 39 per cent more chartered surveyors reporting a rise than a fall respectively. Surveyors report that frustrated sellors have been placing their property on the rental  market to let as they have been unable to agree sales due to a lack of demand in the mortgage market.

Around 37 per cent more chartered surveyors reported a rise than a fall in tenant lettings, up from 30 per cent in the last quarter. Significantly, demand for family homes remains stronger than for flats. Many would be buyers have been forced to rent as the route to mortgage finance has been blocked. Around 43 per cent more chartered surveyors reported a rise than a fall in demand for houses compared to 34 per cent of chartered surveyors who reported a rise in demand for flats. Read the rest of this entry »

The demand for rental properties in July grew by an enormous 76% in the last year according to new data from estate agent Your Move.

The amount of people looking rent  rose more than three quarters in July 2008 from July 2007 as thousands of would-be home buyers scraped plans to get on the property ladder.

Compared to a normal year in which rental demand sees seasonal fluctuations, 2008 has seen continuous and strengthening growth. Landlords have experienced the strongest demand from tenants for decades, as property purchases slide and the ongoing mortgage drought prevents people from buying. Read the rest of this entry »