Category Archives: Mortgages

Kwarteng considers extending mortgage guarantee scheme

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Initiative may continue beyond December as bank bosses raise concerns over mortgage market

The chancellor is considering extending the government’s mortgage guarantee scheme after UK bank bosses raised concerns over the state of the UK’s mortgage market at a high-level meeting at No 11 Downing Street.

The meeting on Thursday – which was attended by chief executives including Alison Rose of NatWest, Charlie Nunn of Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC UK’s Ian Stuart, Mike Regnier of Santander and TSB’s Robin Bulloch – was scheduled amid mounting fears about the potential fallout from rapidly rising mortgage rates.

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Buy-to-let landlords facing financial cliff edge after mini-budget

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Mortgage market meltdown has left many amateur landlords facing a stark choice: to raise rents or sell up

Britain’s amateur landlords have benefited from years of runaway house price inflation, while intense competition among tenants has sent rents soaring. Now, thanks to the meltdown in the mortgage market triggered by last week’s disastrous mini-budget, many face a financial cliff edge.

Figures shared with the Guardian show that the number of new buy-to-let mortgage deals available has plummeted by 55% in less than a week as lenders frantically pulled products and in many cases increased prices.

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Homeowners warned of ‘significant’ rise in UK interest rates

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Bank of England’s chief economist speaks out after mini-budget, with financial markets expecting rates to reach up to 6%

Britain’s homeowners have been warned to brace themselves for a “significant” increase in interest rates from the Bank of England in response to Kwasi Kwarteng’s tax-cutting mini-budget last week.

Huw Pill, Threadneedle Street’s chief economist, added to the concerns of millions of mortgage payers who have already seen hundreds of home loan products pulled by lenders in anticipation of a big increase in the cost of borrowing.

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Fifty-year home loans would get more on ladder but come with risks

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Analysis: longer mortgages would unlock the bind many renters find themselves in but could be expensive

A 50-year home loan might sound depressing to some, but perhaps not if the alternative is never being able to buy a property. Long-term fixed-rate mortgages are an emerging financial product that should in theory allow first-time buyers who are currently priced out of the market to get on the housing ladder.

By spreading the repayments over longer – the average for mortgages taken out this year is 29 years – buyers should be able to borrow up to eight times their income, rather than the current average of 3.2 times, say potential providers. The loans would be backed by borrowing from pension funds and insurance companies rather than against less stable consumer deposits, to satisfy the Bank of England’s prudential requirement.

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No 10 considers 50-year mortgages that could pass down generations

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Cautious welcome for idea to tackle housing crisis but experts warn of risks to those inheriting

Downing Street is exploring the idea of trying to tackle the housing crisis with ultra-long mortgages of up to 50 years that could pass between generations, allowing more people to build up equity rather than pay rent.

Mortgage experts said the idea could bring some benefits but flagged problems, including the potential to saddle children with debt, and the fact it would not tackle the fundamental issue of housing supply.

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Boris Johnson promises action on cost of living crisis but says higher wages risk further inflation – as it happened

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This live blog has now closed, you can read more on Boris Johnson’s comments about a potential ‘wage-price spiral’ here

The Queen has received a present from the cabinet to mark her Platinum Jubilee, No 10 says. It is a specially-commissioned musical box, with pictures of all the 14 prime ministers who have served here around the side. When it opens it plays Handel’s Hallelujah.

In every office there is always someone who organises the presents and this picture, on the No 10 Flickr account, suggests that in cabinet that job falls to Michael Ellis, the paymaster general.

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Fresh calls for windfall tax on companies that prospered during Covid

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Research highlights six firms that increased their profits by a total of £16bn

Campaigners have issued fresh calls for a windfall tax on companies that prospered during the pandemic, after research highlighted six firms that increased their profits by a total of £16bn.

The outsourcing firm Serco and online clothes retailer Asos were among the companies that saw their global profits more than double over the last financial year, while one investment trust, Scottish Mortgage, saw its returns grow to nine times the average of preceding years.

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