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Bank of Mum and Dad.

With many lenders still ‘blocking’ first time buyers it is no wonder that many of them have turned to other routes for finance, such as what has now been termed as ‘the bank of mum and dad.

The UK’s bank of mum and dad is still booming as parents help their struggling children on to the property ladder. Despite the fall in property prices over the past few months their own home still remains stubbornly out of reach, with lenders still demanding large deposits. Read more

Mortgage Restrictions

New research published on mortgage criteria and lending practices with in the UK draws the same conclusion each month, that restrictions on securing a mortgage are way too strict and therefore means that most potential home owners are unable to get a foot on to the property market. Read more

Households in Financial Difficulty.

The UK economy has begun to recover over the past year but households financial positions remain under strain. Elevated unemployment, weak earnings growth and restricted credit availability still pose a problem for many households.

Gavin Kelly, chief executive of the resolution foundation suggests “many people who scrapped through the recession are going to find the next few years even harder. It is very likely that there will be a significant rise in the number of households struggling to maintain their debt repayments, which is a major concern both for them and the wider economy”. Read more

What is wrong with the housing market?

Almost everything to do with the property market is a huge problem at the moment!

The housing market is ‘lacking genuine direction’ because a squeeze on finance is chocking demand, according to mortgage lender Halifax.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) also says “we agree that there appears to be no clear trajectory for house prices at the moment, however this is not surprising considering the uncertainties currently found both on the supply and demand side”. Read more

Lloyds Cutting Deep

The Lloyds TSB Banking Group are cutting yet more jobs.  In early August the Group decided to axe 40 staff in their Wales region.
Earlier this year, the Lloyds banking group removed 15,000 jobs from their balance sheet and Mr Horta-Osorio said that he wants Lloyds to be the best bank for the customers.  So to continue in the vein that they have been following for the last few years, they are set to remove a further 15,000 jobs from the group, accounting for about 14 per cent of the work force.  Mr Horta-Osorio is widely known and has commented that he intents to see out the strategic vision he has for the group.
One of the aims is to reduce the groups over all visibility on in the international community and focus more on the UK.  The group also aims to meet its £1.5 billion annual savings by 2014.  This, it would seem, is being done through cutting staff and making the organisation a little leaner and retracting from areas that don’t make major profits.
So far, since the Lloyds merger with HBOS, the Lloyds group has removed over 27,500 jobs from their organisation but comments internally are resolute about not closing any branches.  All the cuts seem to be in their back office functions and in middle management.  Insiders have commented that among these changes will be “better end-to-end processes and IT platforms, a de-layered management structure and simpler legal structure, [and] centralised support functions”.
The market took the job cuts quite well as the Lloyds group closed up 9.7 per cent on the Stock Exchange in London, the biggest rise for the day on the top 100 companies index.
The BBC’s Robert Paterson said that “Never have so many jobs been shed by a single bank in British history” going on to say “He wants to do as much of [the job cuts] through redeployment and natural attrition as redundancies, but there are bound to be redundancies,” “They want to bring top management closer to branch management – so there’s a whole swathe of managers for whom that is incredibly bad news.”
The cost cutting exercise within the group will cost about £2.3 billion but will free up about £2 billion for investment in 2011 – 2014 in an effort to “revitalise Halifax” and the other business under the Lloyds group banner.
“Our aim is to become the best bank for customers,” said Mr Horta-Osorio.
“We will unlock the potential in this franchise over time by creating a simpler, more agile and responsive organisation, and by making substantial investments in better-value products and services for our customers.”
Unite, the largest union in the country, said that this news would cause “deep distress and anxiety”. Going further to say that “This review is merely another box-ticking exercise to give this bank – which has already, since its creation two years ago, cut over 27,000 staff – an excuse to sack more employees.”
HSBC is also cutting 700 jobs in its UK retail banking arm but then again, HSBC isn’t owned by the UK tax payers.

Why use an Estate Agent?

Research has shown that 90% of home owners automatically turn to an estate agent when they decided to sell their homes.

There are many reports around at the moment to suggest that the UK is generally dissatisfied with the service they get from estate agents.

Read more

Why Rent Instead of Buying?

There are times when it is obvious that buying a property is the best decision, although most of the time it is much less clear.

There is nothing wrong in the current financial climate in deciding to rent a property instead of buying, especially if circumstances require it. Read more

Why Buy Instead of Renting?

The UK has one of the highest property owning rates in the world, no matter how many boom and busts there are, the British still like the idea of buying their own property.

When considering whether to buy or rent it is worth looking at the local area and weighing up how much you would pay to rent versus how much mortgage payments cost. Read more

Estate Agents

Many believe that estate agents are partly to blame for the low activity in the property market. With their listings at the lowest levels for decades, many have pitched prices to prospective vendors that are far too high in the current climate. However vendors are not totally blameless.

Estate agents have now come unstuck, their transaction levels are through the floor as they have not been able to sell their over priced stock and each one of the unsold properties costs them money. Read more

30 Year Fixed Rate Mortgages

Housing minister, Grant Shapps has been trying to persuade lenders to offer long term fixed rate mortgages. He called for lenders to offer 30 year fixed rate loans in order to give borrowers more certainty in the current financial climate. Read more

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