UK Mortgage & Property Related News
Rightmove says the average first-time buyer mortgage payment is nearly £150 lower than the mortgage rate peak in July 2023.
Rightmove’s weekly mortgage tracker shows how average mortgage rates have decreased since the peak in July 2023. The average monthly mortgage payment for a typical first-time buyer is now £949, compared with £1,096 in July 2023, a saving of nearly £150 (£147), or 13%.
The number of mortgages approved reached a near two-year high, according to Bank of England figures, as hopes of cheaper borrowing encouraged would-be buyers.
Mortgage approvals increased to 62,000 in July, a level not seen since September 2022, a sign that buyers were waiting for hopes of reduced interest rates and the associated lower mortgage bills.
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Mojo Mortgages’ data has revealed that extending a mortgage from 25 to 35 years can cost the average first-time buyer an extra £87,180.
John Fraser-Tucker, head of mortgages at Mojo, says: “Our research has found with the current average mortgage rate for a two-year fix (75% LTV) at 5.44%, the total cost of an average-priced house (£285,000) varies significantly on the loan term.
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According to the survey, 34.8% of UK adults believe buying a home is more challenging and stressful than selling, with 27.8% claiming it to be the other way round. The remainder didn’t know.
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Soaring rates have made mortgages a hot topic in the UK. Despite this, the phrase ‘what is a mortgage?’ receives an average of 4,400 Google searches per month, indicating that many people are still confused about the subject. So, how many people actually understand certain mortgage-related terms, and how many are left scratching their heads?
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I’ve nearly finished a two-year fixed rate and starting to look at remortgaging soon. I bought my property at the end of 2022, and it needed quite a lot of work. I’ve upgraded the kitchen, bathroom and redecorated throughout.
When I bought the property it was £325,000 and it’s now worth £375,000. Will this be taken into account when I remortgage?
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The government’s plan to get 80,000 young people on the housing ladder with a permanent mortgage guarantee scheme may not have the desired impact, new figures have revealed.
Labour has pledged to make the previously-temporary scheme a permanent fixture as part of a package of measures to boost the housing market.
The mortgage guarantee scheme allows lenders to provide 95% mortgages to households with the backing of the government.
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Landlords are not reaping as bigger benefit from recent mortgage rate cuts as those who live in their own homes, analysis shows.
The interest rates on fixed home loans have been dropping for weeks after falls in inflation and a cut in interest rates by the Bank of England.
Falls have been seen across all types of mortgage, but the more dramatic drops have been seen on residential deals.
Experts have said the trend is due to a combination of buy-to-let mortgages being seen as riskier for lenders, and greater competition in the residential market.
According to data from Moneyfacts analysed by i, at the start of July, the average five-year fixed residential mortgage at 75 per cent loan-to-value (LTV) – meaning a deposit or equity of 25 per cent – stood at 5.39 per cent. For the equivalent buy-to-let mortgage, the rate was 5.59 per cent.
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The trend of lenders cutting mortgage rates is unlikely to be ‘disturbed’ by the first inflation rise of the year, according to experts.
Inflation rose to 2.2 per cent in the 12 months to July, up from 2 per cent the previous month, ONS figures revealed earlier today.
While it means inflation is back above the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target, it was a smaller-than-expected rise with markets expecting a 2.3 per cent increase.
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Some £30bn is expected to be gifted to first-time buyers in the next three years, according to estate agency group Savills.
Last year £9.4 billion was gifted to 164,000 first-time buyers, accounting for a huge 57% of all mortgaged first-time buyers.
Frances McDonald, director of residential research at Savills, said: “While many homebuyers enjoyed record-low interest rates during the early part of the decade, more stringent mortgage requirements, which have been in place since the start of the pandemic, have impacted higher-loan-to-value (LTV) lending, most commonly used by first-time buyers.
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