Paresh Raja
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Housing Market
‘Bank of England will hike rates despite falling inflation’
The fall was driven by a reduction in the energy price cap and food prices but services inflation which the bank monitors rose to 7.4% from 7.2%.
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Latest property news
Majority of landlords ‘not ready’ for EPC rules challenge
A survey of landlords by mortgage firm MFS shows that only 38% know what is required under the regulations.
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Latest property news
80% of home movers think gazumping needs solving – could Reservation Agreements do the job?
New research into gazumping shows that up to half of buyers have been gazumped and 40% have lost money after paying for surveys or legal work prior to exchange.
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Latest property news
Portfolio landlords struggle to get mortgages as PRA rules kick in, research shows
Nearly three quarters of landlords with multiple properties are finding it harder to get either mortgages or remortgage existing debt as the Prudential Regulation Authority’s second wave of mortgage rules kick in, it has been revealed. Research completed on behalf of lender Foundation Home Loans among 2,000 landlords found that 70% of those with more than four properties had struggled to obtain further finance to buy more properties, while half of those with between one and three properties also faced problems. The second wave of PRA rules went live in September last year to allay fears that excessive borrowing by banks on generous terms to landlords might endanger the economy during a downturn. The larger the portfolio, the harder it has become for landlords to get the green light for more finance, largely because those with more than four properties are now effectively classed as enterprises and must submit business plans to get a home loan or remortgage an existing one. Rejected by lenders Two thirds of landlords with eleven or more properties within their portfolio now believe the range of mortgages available to them has dropped, while a quarter think they are now more likely to be rejected by…
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Latest property news
Chancellor’s Stamp Duty giveaway only ‘modest’ boon for market, says Nationwide
The recent Stamp Duty changes announced in last week’s Autumn Budget will have only a modest impact on demand, lender the Nationwide has revealed. Commenting within its monthly house price index published today, it says that in “many regions, first time buyers already paid little or no stamp duty as the price of the typical first time buyer property was below the previous threshold of £125,000”. Nationwide also says the Stamp Duty will benefit mostly first time buyers in London and the South East, and help sure up values for existing home owners in these areas of the UK. Its figures bear this out (see box, left). The Stamp Duty changes mean that in London, for example, 11% of first time buyers who would have previously paid on average £13,102 when they bought a property will now pay no tax, while in the North almost all first time buyers will now pay no tax, although until now they were only paying on average £100 in Stamp Duty. “Despite the enthusiastic reception given to the cut in Stamp Duty for first-time buyers announced in last week’s Budget, it’s too early to detect its impact in the increasingly stagnant picture painted by the…
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