While most young people are struggling to get on the property ladder, some over 50s are clinging on to the last rung.

Research by The Saga Equity Release Advice Service shows that more than a million over 50s are set to face a shortfall when it comes to paying off their interest only mortgage. Continue reading →

Gross lending for the first quarter of 2013 was therefore an estimated £33.8 billion. This represents a 9% drop from the last three months of 2012 but matches the gross mortgage lending total for the first quarter of 2012.

CML chief economist Bob Pannell said: "Conditions in the housing and mortgage markets continue to show signs of improving. The improvement in funding markets over the past year, reinforced by the incremental benefits of the Funding for Lending Scheme, has been the key catalyst behind stronger housing activity.

"The Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme – while still embryonic as yet – holds significant Continue reading →

March was the third consecutive month in which house purchase lending has fallen, reversing a trend of five consecutive months of increases in lending between July and December last year.
 
There were 5% fewer purchase approvals than March last year, and it is the first time since 2008 that house purchase lending has fallen between a February and a March.
 
Richard Sexton, director of e.surv chartered surveyors, explains: “The mortgage market is beginning to regress. It ended last year very strongly – with five consecutive months of increasing house purchase lending and more loans to first-time buyers Continue reading →

Lending to home movers fell – contributing to an overall dip in house purchase lending – while remortgage lending also eased.
 
A total of 16,400 loans were advanced to first-time buyers in February, up on 15,900 in January and 14,000 at the same time last year. By value, loans to first-time buyers totalled £2 billion, the same amount as the previous month, but 18% higher than in February 2012 (1.7 billion).
 
First-time buyers accounted for 43% of all house purchase loans in February. This was the sixth consecutive month that this indicator has been at or above 40%, suggesting Continue reading →

Within the report the following key figures were highlighted:

* 42% still see access to finance as a barrier to homeownership, the lowest figure since 2008;
* First-time buyers are finding it easier to get onto the property ladder;
* 30% of first-time buyers still say that mortgage access is preventing them from buying a home. Last year, however, this figure was closer to 50%;
* 45% predict house prices will increase over the coming year;
* Around 15% believe house prices will fall, a fall from the 25% that predicted the same thing three months ago.

There has also been a rise Continue reading →

High gross yields are encouraging more landlords to refinance. Average gross yields have increased over the past year on all property types other than HMO, which has encouraged more landlords to refinance to free up enough capital to make further purchases. Yields on vanilla property have improved marginally from 6.3% to 6.4% over the past 12 months – although it remains by some distance the lowest gross yielding asset class. Yields on semi-commercial property are significantly higher, and, despite the fall in HMO gross yields from 10.7% to 10.5% over the past 12 months, it remains the highest yielding property type.
Continue reading →

Ian Wilson, head of sales at Halifax Intermediaries said: “It is no surprise that a large proportion of purchases above £250,000 are in Greater London and the South East. Traditionally we generally see a spike in clients reviewing their finances in the first quarter of the year, with this year being no exception.

“High-value mortgages can be quite complex, with borrowers having multi-faceted  income streams, with bonuses, business profits and investment income often forming part of the overall income picture.  Due to the nature of these types of cases, lenders need to be flexible and understanding of the requirements of brokers and Continue reading →

“To achieve this, the scheme will need to ensure that all lenders will be able to gain capital relief in recognition of the risk mitigation offered by the Government guarantee,” the CML said.

“Without capital relief, and depending on the size of the fee, the cost of the commercial fee that lenders will have to pay to gain the benefit of the scheme could make the scheme uneconomical.

“Because it will take some months to design and put the scheme in place, the benefits will not be immediate. However, a successful scheme could ultimately enable lenders to offer more low-deposit loans than they Continue reading →

More than half (55%) were sold to avoid mortgage arrears or to avoid court actions by the lender with the rest being taking over by the mortgage lender or the owner left voluntarily or by court order.

However, Castle Trust has cautioned homeowners to be wary of a rise in inflation and an increase in the UK base rate, which has been held at 0.5% for four years. Indeed recent ONS research shows just how significant a proportion (34%2) of a household’s monthly expenditure goes on mortgage payments.

Castle Trust believes households can search for new and innovative lending products to protect themselves Continue reading →

The independent research carried out by Oxford Economics for specialist insurer Just Retirement looks at the impact of equity release on pensioner poverty and the wider UK economy in terms of GDP, jobs and tax revenues.

Around one in every seven pensioners has a disposable income of less than 60% of median household income, the "relative poverty" threshold defined by the Department of Work and Pensions. That is 1.7 million pensioners overall, of whom 60% own their own homes outright. Of the very worst off pensioners, the 0.8 million classified by the DWP as suffering ‘material deprivation’, 38% own their properties outright.

"The Continue reading →