mortgages
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Latest property news
Santander and Legal & General bosses appear to disagree over challenges faced by first time buyers
The mortgage arm of Santander has claimed today that owning a home is cheaper than renting in all areas of the UK and that first time buyers shouldn’t be put off by the challenges of saving up a deposit because of the costs gap of owning rather than renting a property. Santander reckons first time buyers in the UK can on average save £2,250 a year by owning a property, and £3,648 in London. “Many first time buyers understandably focus on the challenge of saving for a deposit and wonder how they will afford a property,” Miguel Sard (right), Managing Director of mortgages at Santander UK says. “However, it is often assumed that when you purchase a property you will be under greater financial pressure and our research shows the reverse is true.” But Kevin Roberts of Legal & General Mortgage Club (below) has been quick to point out today that the almost impossible task faced by many first time buyers to save up a deposit means many are unable to access the annual ‘savings’ to be made from owning versus renting that Santander is so keen to tout. “For many aspiring homeowners, saving for this initial deposit is easier said…
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Latest property news
First digital mortgage signed by borrower
Coventry Building Society and Enact Conveyancing have lodged the first digitally signed mortgage, into the Land Register, for a house in Rotherhithe, London.
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Latest property news
Countrywide reveals new digital venture with Dynamo online mortgage broker
Countrywide has revealed its latest investment in online tech following today’s launch of Dynamo, a re-mortgaging service offering products direct to the public from NatWest, Virgin Money, HSBC, Barclays, Leeds Building Society, Nationwide and Santander. At launch the website offers only a re-mortgage service and has half a dozen brokers working for it, although with Countrywide’s backing Dynamo says it has big plans to expand quickly and will move into first time buyer and mover mortgages later this year. This is likely to be achievable – Countrywide is to supply leads to Dynamo from its customer database by contacting them as their mortgages come out of fixed-rate deals, for example. But Dynamo will do its owner marketing to acquire customers elsewhere, too. Countrywide is an equal partner in the business alongside Blenheim Chalcot, which has a successful track record investing in tech start-ups including ClearScore. A Countrywide executive, its MD of Financial Services Peter Curran, sits on the Dynamo board. Back to basics? This digital play by Countrywide sits slightly oddly alongside the company’s recent promise to ‘go back to basics’ but will help sure-up its ancillary income stream, which recently dwindled from 50p to 38p for every £1 generated…
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Latest property news
‘Estate agents are putting too many buyers and sellers under pressure to buy in-house services’
Estate agents are pressuring too many buyers and sellers into using their in-house services to source mortgages, conveyancing, surveys, insurance and EPCs, it is claimed. Campaigning organisation the HomeOwners Alliance surveyed 2,000 buyers and sellers and found that 55% had felt under pressure to buy a mortgage through the estate agent handling the sale, while 49% felt obliged to buy conveyancing services through them. The figure for surveys was slight better at 41% of buyers and sellers, life insurance at 28%, EPC certificates at 17% and home insurance at 12%. The Homeowners Alliance also says their research shows 25% of all sellers and buyers felt under pressure to use an agent’s in-house services of one kind or another, which the organisation claims indicates some 300,000 people every year, based in industry figures. “It’s not good if buyers and sellers feel under pressure to use an estate agent’s services because they are led to believe doing so will put them in a better position for securing their dream home or get them a preferential treatment by the estate agent,” says its Chief Executive Paula Higgins (pictured, left). “They should be encouraged to shop around to find the best deal.” “Any estate…
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Crying game? Mortgages driving first time buyers to tears
It’s fair to say that applying for mortgages is few people’s idea of fun, but can the process ever drive them to tears? It can, according to research among home owners by mortgage broker Trussle, which has discovered that 8% of all first-time buyers get teary-eyed while attempting to get their first mortgage, or 27,000 people every year. The research also found that 9% of first time buyers had been discouraged during the process of buying their property because they had felt getting a mortgage was an ordeal, while nearly a quarter of first-time buyers are forced to time off work to sort out their mortgage application. This equates to 77,740 people last year. Stressful Also, 23% of the 2,000 people quizzed during the research said the experience of getting a mortgage was stressful, while many found making a mortgage application to be “opaque and time-consuming”. This is also persuading many people to stay put with their existing lender rather than switch provider and remortgage, says Trussle. It reckons there are two million people on Standard Variable Rate mortgages who could save thousands of pounds a year if they were to switch to a mortgage with a more competitive rate.…
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Features
Finding the funding
The housing market is steady, if not flying, but funding is challenging for many buyers, delaying sales, says Sheila Manchester.
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First-time buyer frenzy
First-time buyer activity rose to 36 per cent of market activity in February...
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Latest property news
CML predicts fewer buy-to-let property purchases in 2017
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) says the number of houses bought by landlords next year is likely to fall as several headwinds reduce demand for buy-to-let property. This includes the recently-introduced additional 3% Stamp Duty for buy-to-let purchases, the Prudential Regulation Authority’s buy-to-let lending stress tests starting on January 1st, and the new and less generous tax allowances for landlords, which kick off in April next year. Consequently, CML director general Paul Smee (pictured, below) says that although the overall mortgage market is resilient and will ‘plateau’ during 2017, buy-to-let lending is to likely to decline. The CML predicts that total lending for all types of mortgages in 2017 will be £248 million, approximately the same as 2016, before increasing in 2018 to £252 billion. But lending for new buy-to-let purchases is to decline in both 2017 and 2018, it says. “We expect any modest strengthening in home-owner lending to be rather offset by a less active house purchase market in buy-to-let, as both tax and regulatory changes bite on landlords,” says Paul. But lending is not the only dial on the buy-to-let market to be going down. Lender Landbay says average UK rental growth during 2016 halved from 2.34% to…
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FCA to investigate mortgage lending via estate agents
Estate agents who introduce customers to in-house or third party mortgage brokers are to be investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as part of a new wide-ranging look at competition in the home loans market. The aim of the review is to see if customers are being offered the best deals, advice and whether links between industry players limit choice, all part of a wider government drive to reduce the cost of buying a home. There are currently 11.1 million home loans held in the UK worth £1.3 trillion, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. “As a mortgage is likely to be the biggest financial commitment most people make in their lifetime, we’re keen to ensure that competition in the mortgage sector is healthy and working to the benefit of consumers,” said Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s executive director of strategy and competition (pictured). This will include a close look at how estate agents, conveyancers, surveyors and developers all introduce customers to mortgage lenders or brokers. But when launching the full review the FCA singled out estate agents for criticism, saying that some customers could be coming under pressure from estate agents to use certain brokers if they want…
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New revenue opportunities for estate agents
ZPG adds mortgage pre-qualification data to applicant leads.
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