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The Build to Rent Fund.

The Build to Rent Fund.

Recent research has revealed that private rented housing is a growing part of the housing market. It comprises almost 16.5 per cent of all households which equates to nearly 3.8 million homes in England.

Therefore there is now growing realisation that Generation Rent needs more affordable housing especially as lenders are pulling the ladder up on mortgage availability. Read more

£91 Million Set Aside to Bring 6,000 Homes Back into Use.

£91 Million Set Aside to Bring 6,000 Homes Back into Use.

The severe shortage of homes in Britain is a crisis decades in the making. It seems that for decades Britain has severely under built and therefore the economic and social consequences of this failure have affected millions.

Empty homes in England currently accounts for 3 per cent of the total housing stock.  Read more

Rent Arrears Decline in May 2013.

Rent Arrears Decline in May 2013.

Current analysis reveals that the rental sector is still growing, with the number of new tenants up by 3.4 per cent in May on the previous month and by 5.1 per cent year on year.

New research indicates that tenants who are increasingly struggling to pay their bills may eventually lead to rent arrears, a situation which is alarming many UK landlords. Read more

Barclays Reduce Family Springboard Mortgage Rate.

Barclays Reduce Family Springboard Mortgage Rate.

The Funding for Lending scheme has prompted a mortgage price war with several lenders slashing their rates in recent months. However, much of the strongest competition so far has been to attract borrowers with bigger deposits.

As the cost of fixed-rate mortgage deals continues to fall, lenders are slowly starting to offer more competitive deals to those with smaller deposits. Read more

A Buy To Let Sourcing Tool.

A Buy To Let Sourcing Tool.

Over the last few years, as the property market as a whole has suffered the devastating affects of the credit crunch investors and brokers alike have been crying out for innovation.

The buy to let arena was hit particularly hard as some of the biggest names in the market were forced to retreat. Read more

Lenders Sign Up To Help to Buy Scheme.

Lenders Sign Up To Help to Buy Scheme.

The budget in March saw the announcement of the help to buy scheme. The scheme offers equity loans up to 20 per cent to new build home buyers, who must then contribute a deposit of at least 5 per cent on properties valued at up to £600,000.

Help to Buy is intended to be a dramatic intervention to get the housing market moving. The initiative is however an extension to existing government programme New Buy. Read more

Mortgage Jargon needs to be clearer!

Mortgage Jargon needs to be clearer!

Mortgage lenders have gone to great lengths to revitalise the housing market by producing innovative and competitive products.

Moneyfacts, a comparison website, states that interest rates have plunged to all time lows. The rate on five year fixed deals has dropped almost 50 per cent since 2008 to less than 4 per cent. Read more

Nationwide Grabs a Bigger Slice of Mortgage Market.

Nationwide Grabs a Bigger Slice of Mortgage Market.

One of Britain’s biggest building society’s, Nationwide handed out around £800 million to its pre 2009 mortgage borrowers last year which was largely at the expense of many of its savers.

When the bank of England base rate was 5 per cent many lenders offered mortgages that would track the bank rate for the whole 25 year length of the loan.

Nationwide promised holders of its standard variable rate (SVR) loans, what it called Base Mortgage Rate (BMR) that they would never pay more than two percentage points above bank rate.

Therefore some of the building society’s mortgage customers, around 730,000 customers, have paid just 2.5 per cent since March 2009.

Though any mortgages taken since then now revert to the new standard mortgage rate which has a 3.99 per cent rate.

Executive director of the Nationwide building society, Chris Rhodes has repeatedly confirmed that the rate would be honoured indefinitely.

While this loyalty to borrowers maybe admirable it does come at a cost. Benefits elsewhere in the business are reduced in order to meet the annual £800 million cost of honouring the rate.

The good news though is that the society has a whole has navigated well throughout the financial turbulence of recent years.

A customer exodus from traditional banks has meant the Nationwide has been given a boost and therefore their shares of the mortgage market have grown to a record high.

It seems that dissatisfaction with the big banks has lead to people voting with their feet.

Graham Beale, chief executive of the building society, says “Nationwide is uniquely well placed to meet the demands of the growing number of customers who are seeking a genuine and variable alternative to the established banks”.

Gross mortgage lending has jumped 17 per cent to £21.5 billion thus giving the group its highest ever market share.

Recent figures have revealed that the building society provided 15.1 per cent of all UK mortgage lending and this figure is up from the 13 per cent recorded last year.

During the year Nationwide also provided loans to more than 42,000 first-time buyers, a 75 per cent rise on last year and meaning that the society was responsible for almost one in five of all first-time buyer mortgages in the UK.

In April this year the building society posted a 3.4 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £210 million from £203 million last year.

The mutual has however shrugged off suggestions that it has benefited from the woes of its major rival the Co-operative bank, which just this month had its credit rating downgraded six notches by Moody’s, a credit rating agency, to effectively ‘junk’ status.

Nevertheless, in conclusion it appears that the Nationwide building society’s financial position remains strong and robust. This may be due to the fact that the lender has not simply focussed on new customers but it has reserved the very best deals for their existing customers.

Skipton Building Society Help First Time Buyers.

Skipton Building Society Help First Time Buyers.

It appears that across all loan to values (LTV), the number of mortgages on the market has increased by almost one quarter year on year, with around 2,872 deals now available.

London & Country associate director of communications David Hollingworth says: “This shows a general shift in lender attitude and a gentle widening out of the risk profile.” Read more

Buy to Let Lenders Launch New Mortgage Deals.

Buy to Let Lenders Launch New Mortgage Deals.

Analysis has revealed that the private rented sector has grown by 72 per cent since 2001 and there are now over nine million people in England renting privately.

Buy to let seems to be a popular option for those who would rather grow their wealth through brick and mortar than shares.

Research shows that buy to let applications have soared by around 26 per cent in the past year.

It seems then that landlords are to receive yet another boost as a number of buy to let mortgage providers have launched new deals just recently.

These new launches have come as the number of buy to let loans being taken out is at its highest level in four years.

Around £1 in every £7 lent on mortgages last year went to landlords, which is a total of £16.4 billion.

There maybe a number of reasons for this. Falling house prices in many parts of the country have prompted existing landlords to snap up more properties, while increasing buy to let mortgage competition and rising rents are also encouraging people to enter the market.

Rightmove, the property search website said its recent research has shown that rents are delivering gross yields of around 5.9 per cent.

The Mortgage Works (TMW), a subsidiary of Nationwide Building Society, has launched its lowest ever fixed rate at 2.49 per cent from today and is available to both first time and experienced landlords.

This deal is for those borrowers with a 60 per cent loan to value (LTV) and carries a 2.5 per cent fee. This would mean a £6,250 fee on a £250,000 purchase.

Henry Jordan, managing director of The Mortgage Works, said: “The Mortgage Works is now offering its lowest ever buy to let fixed rate. These changes further demonstrate our steadfast commitment to the buy to let sector, with landlords being able to secure market leading headline rates across all of our loan to value tiers up to 80 per cent.”

Landlord Centre, the online buy to let mortgage specialist, has also launched two new exclusive buy to let mortgages.

The first, from Melton Mowbray Building Society, is a 2.55 per cent fixed rate until September 2015 with a £2,495 completion fee.

The second is Hinckley & Rugby Building Society with a 2.55 per cent two year discount mortgage with a two per cent completion fee. Both are available up to 60 per cent loan to value (LTV).

Andy Young, chief executive at Landlord Centre, said: “These products are a great option for landlord clients with larger deposits or existing equity in their buy to let properties.”

Mortgage Trust, the specialist buy to let lender and sister lender of Paragon Mortgages , is also now offering a 2.99 per cent two year fixed rate at 75 per cent loan to value (LTV), with a 3 per cent fee, and a 4.15 per cent at the same loan to value ( LTV) with free valuation but with a flat fee of £950.

So in conclusion, it therefore appears that the buy to let mortgage market is continuing to perform well in 2013.

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