Category Archives: Mortgages

Mortgage reforms have excluded first-time buyers, say UK building societies

Posted on by

Report calls for overhaul of rules on loan affordability and repayment, and more flexible mortgage products

Mortgage reforms introduced after the 2008 banking crisis have “tilted too far” in support of financial stability to the point that first-time buyers are being excluded from the housing market, building societies have warned.

A report commissioned by the Building Societies Association has called for an overhaul of affordability and repayment rules, which they say have contributed to a steady decline in first-time buyer mortgages since the mid-2000s.

Continue reading...

UK house prices rise at fastest rate since January 2023

Posted on by

Lower mortgage rates lead to increased buyer and seller confidence, says Halifax

UK house prices rose 2.5% in the year to January, recording the biggest increase since January last year, as lower mortgage rates and fading inflationary pressures led to increased buyer and seller confidence, Halifax has said.

January marked the fourth consecutive monthly rise, with a 1.3% uplift on December, the UK’s biggest mortgage lender said, with the average home costing £291,000, £3,9000 more than in December.

Continue reading...

UK banks expect sharp rise in defaults on unsecured debt

Posted on by

Lenders forecast biggest quarterly increase in missed repayments on credit cards and loans since 2009

Business live – latest updates

Britain’s biggest high street lenders expect the sharpest rise in defaults on unsecured lending since 2009, according to a Bank of England survey, as households come under growing pressure amid the cost of living crisis.

The figures from Threadneedle Street show banks expect a marked rise in the number of people who fail to meet repayments on credit cards, loans and other forms of unsecured borrowing over the next three months.

Continue reading...

UK house prices rise for third straight month as mortgage rates fall

Posted on by

Nationwide says average property price was £258,557 in November, £5,231 down on same month last year

UK house prices rose for a third consecutive month in November as the market responded to hopes that mortgage rate costs had peaked.

Nationwide, the UK’s biggest building society, said prices rose 0.2% month on month in November, after a 0.9% rise in October and a 0.1% rise in September. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.4% fall in prices in November.

Continue reading...

UK house prices will not stop falling until 2025, Lloyds predicts

Posted on by

Britain’s biggest mortgage lender forecasts 5% drop over this year and another 2.4% decline in 2024

UK house prices will continue to slide this year and in 2024 and will not start to recover until 2025, Lloyds Banking Group has forecast.

The lender, which owns Halifax and is Britain’s largest mortgage provider, said that by the end of 2023 UK house prices would have fallen 5% over the course of the year and were likely to decrease by another 2.4% in 2024.

Continue reading...

Buyer’s market fuels fastest fall in UK house prices in 14 years

Posted on by

High mortgage costs result in sixth straight month of sellers being forced to reduce prices, says Halifax

UK house prices fell at the fastest annual rate in 14 years in September, as high mortgage costs fuelled a sixth consecutive monthly drop in a “buyer’s market”, according to Halifax.

Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, said prices fell by 4.7% in September, the biggest year-on-year decrease since 2009.

Continue reading...

Supply shortages and mortgage rate rises push UK rents to highest point ever

Posted on by

Average rental property receives three times more enquiries from prospective tenants than in 2019

Private home rents in Great Britain have increased to their highest point on record after shortages in supply and mortgage rate rises combined to push the cost up by 10% over the past 12 months.

The average rent for new properties being put on the market now stands at a record £1,278 per calendar month outside London in the July to September period, according to Rightmove.

Continue reading...

First-time buyers in UK drop by a fifth as higher mortgage costs bite

Posted on by

Lender says homes needing renovation are most in demand as people seek cheaper properties

The number of first-time buyers in the UK has fallen by more than a fifth, while homes in need of renovation are most in demand as buyers look for cheaper properties, in the latest evidence that people are struggling with higher mortgage costs.

There were 22% fewer first-time buyers between January and August compared with the same period last year, according to the mortgage lender Halifax. They still accounted for more than half (53%) of all home loans agreed in the first eight months of this year, similar to a year earlier (52%).

Continue reading...

Proportion of UK house sellers cutting asking price reaches ‘highest in over a decade’

Posted on by

More than 36% of properties have had asking price cut at least once — the highest figure since 2011

UK house sellers are cutting their asking prices at the fastest rate in more than a decade, after high interest rates dampened demand for property this summer.

The proportion of homes on the market which have had at least one price reduction is at its highest level since January 2011, the property website Rightmove has reported.

Continue reading...

UK ‘mortgage meltdown’ looms amid ‘terrifying’ growth in arrears

Posted on by

Jump in borrowers unable to make payments with landlords particularly hit and ‘worse to come’

Mortgage arrears jumped by 13% in the second quarter of the year to the highest level since 2016, according to Bank of England figures that underscore the stress in the UK mortgage market.

Rising interest rates and unemployment over recent months have put pressure on household disposable incomes, forcing some families to cut or suspend their monthly mortgage payments.

Continue reading...

UK house prices fall at fastest rate since 2009, says Nationwide

Posted on by

August 5.3% drop comes as sales completions down by about 40% in first half of year compared with 2021

UK house prices fell 5.3% in August compared with the same month last year, the fastest annual drop in 14 years, according to Nationwide Building Society.

The lender said the fall, which was the biggest since July 2009, when the global economy was in the depths of the financial crisis, was driven by soaring mortgage costs, which are putting off potential buyers. Average house prices are more than £14,500 lower than they were a year ago and mortgage approvals have plummeted by a fifth compared with pre-pandemic levels.

Continue reading...

UK home sales in 2023 will be lowest in a decade, says Zoopla

Posted on by

Interest rate rises on mortgages are weakening demand, property website says

The number of UK homes sold this year is expected to fall to the lowest level in more than a decade, as the soaring cost of mortgages puts off homebuyers.

House sales reaching completion are expected to fall 21% year-on-year to about 1m in 2023, the lowest level since 2012, according to a report from the property website Zoopla.

Continue reading...

Homeowners left out of pocket after two-year delays at UK Land Registry

Posted on by

Administrative hold-ups leave buyers missing best mortgage deals and some owners unable to sell

Long delays in registering properties with the Land Registry across Great Britain are causing frustration among homeowners and buyers with some being left out of pocket as a result.

Latest figures from His Majesty’s Land Registry show that it is taking almost two years for some applications to make changes to the register to be completed.

Continue reading...

UK house prices fall at fastest annual rate since 2011, says Halifax

Posted on by

Average price of property drops by 2.6% year on year in June as mortgage rates climb

UK house prices experienced their biggest annual fall in 12 years, according to Halifax, the latest sign that soaring interest rates on mortgages is bringing a halt to the housing boom.

The average price of a UK home tumbled 2.6% year on year last month, the largest annual decrease the lender has reported since June 2011, a significant acceleration from the 1.1% decline record in May.

Continue reading...

Average rate on five-year fixed mortgage deal in UK climbs above 6%

Posted on by

Rate is at highest level since last November, and average two-year fix is now 6.47%

A typical five-year fixed mortgage deal in the UK now has an interest rate of more than 6%, putting further pressure on borrowers who are hoping to buy a home or reaching the end of their existing deals.

Data from the financial information firm Moneyfacts shows the cost of a five-year deal for homeowners rose to 6.01% on Tuesday, up from 5.97% on Monday. It is the highest level since last November, after mortgage rates had been driven up by the mini-budget chaos of last autumn.

Continue reading...

‘We’re kicking ourselves that we didn’t do a five-year mortgage fix in 2021’

Posted on by

Anguished families talk about how the Bank of England’s 13th consecutive interest hike is affecting them – and their fears for the future

Liam, 36, a senior IT manager and married father-of-one from Newcastle upon Tyne, is one of millions of homeowners whose mortgage payments will rise even higher after the Bank of England on Thursday put up the base interest rate to 5% – a 15-year high.

Together with his husband, Liam bought his four-bedroom house in 2019 for £269k, and the couple’s three-year mortgage deal, refixed at 1.64% in 2020 just before the first lockdown, expired in March.

Continue reading...

Ever-higher mortgage rates will leave Rishi Sunak feeling low

Posted on by

Tories are likely to bear the brunt of homeowning voters’ anger in marginal constituencies in next year’s election

As the former chancellor who warned presciently during last summer’s leadership contest that Liz Truss would crash the economy, Rishi Sunak’s calm competence was meant to be his key electoral selling point.

But after Thursday’s half-point rate rise by the Bank of England left thousands of voters facing eye-watering mortgage hikes, a shirt-sleeved Sunak was reduced to insisting he was “totally, 100% on it” when it comes to fighting inflation.

Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak says he is ‘totally, 100% on it’ in battle against inflation – UK politics live

Posted on by

Prime minister says he knows people will be anxious about rate rise but ‘it is going to be OK’

Rishi Sunak has posted a thread on Twitter setting out what the government is doing to help people with the cost of living. It starts here.

He ends by saying “if we can hold our nerve” he is confident the plan will deliver.

Continue reading...

Labour piles pressure on Sunak with plan to prevent ‘mortgage catastrophe’

Posted on by

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves says party would force banks to take a range of steps to protect borrowers

Labour has piled further pressure on Rishi Sunak to take action to help struggling mortgage holders as the Bank of England prepares to raise interest rates again to levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crash.

Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said on Wednesday that if Labour were currently in power, it would force banks to offer a range of support to borrowers, including letting them move on to interest-only mortgages and extending their repayment period.

Continue reading...

UK homeowners face huge rise in payments when fixed-rate mortgages expire

Posted on by

More than 2.4m deals are ending in 2024, raising fears of financial timebomb

More than a quarter of UK homeowners on a fixed-rate mortgage are heading for sharp increase in monthly payments before the next election, in a financial timebomb that will rock the Conservatives just as voters prepare to choose the next government.

With the Bank of England expected to increase its key interest rate next week for the 13th time, figures shared with the Guardian by UK Finance, the banking industry trade body, show more than 2.4m fixed-rate homeowner deals will expire between now and the end of 2024.

Continue reading...