Category: Mortgage

Remortgage approvals rose 22% from 30,900 to 37,700 month-on-month.

Homeowners borrowed £1.5bn of net mortgage debt in February compared to £1.1bn in January.

The average interest rate on newly drawn mortgages fell by 29 basis points to 4.9% compared to the previous month.

Simon Gammon, managing partner at Knight Frank Finance, said: “The recovery in housing market activity is taking hold despite an uncertain start to the year for mortgage rates. Hotter-than-expected inflation data in January and February prompted a few lenders to notch up mortgage rates, which knocked sentiment, but not enough to kill the market’s momentum.”

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The UK’s upcoming general election could cause great challenges for the mortgage industry in the coming year, the Building Societies Association has suggested.

Paul Broadhead (pictured), head of mortgages and housing at the trade association, warned against politicians staging vote-grabbing stunts which could disrupt business.

“The biggest challenges in the next year may very well be as a result of the pending general election,” Broadhead told Mortgage Introducer. “The potential for this to cause disruption is high, and we can only hope that politicians refrain from any posturing or stunts in an attempt to win over voters in the lead up to the election.”

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A woman who bought a house at 25 has revealed she was able to qualify for a home loan by cancelling her Afterpay account.

Bridget Carkeet, now 28, bought a four-bedroom house in Ipswich, 40km south-west of Brisbane, for $500,000 in 2021.

But to qualify for the loan, she had to close down her Afterpay and Zip Pay accounts.

‘They were not really in use but I still had them active,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.

Experts warn a credit card with a $15,000 limit – even if it has nothing outstanding – could cut your potential maximum available loan by $71,000 if it’s not cancelled.

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More people will still be making payments well into the 70s and even 80s, it has been warned, with four in 10 set to pay mortgages well past retirement.

40 year mortgages will see OAPs weighed down with monthly repayments, it has been warned. More people will still be making payments well into the 70s and even 80s, it has been warned, with four in 10 set to pay mortgages well past retirement.

The Bank of England found just under 50 per cent of home loans issued in the fourth quarter of 2023 were for terms of 30 years or more. Pensions minister Steve Webb said he was “genuinely shocked” by the figures this week.

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Since the start of September 2023, the average two-year fixed rate has fallen from 6.70% to 5.76% and the average five-year fixed rate has fallen from 6.19% to 5.34%. T

These average rates have, however, risen from 5.56% and 5.18% respectively since last month.

On a 10-year fixed rate mortgage, the average rate has risen from 5.82% to 5.98% since September 2023. The rate has risen from 5.87% since the start of February 2024.

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Many cultures around the world regard the number seven as lucky, but that is unlikely to be the case at the offices of UK Finance.

Its most recent data for mortgage arrears and possessions — describing the fourth quarter of 2023 — shows a 7% increase for homeowner mortgages for the third time in a row. That brings the total number of houses in this unfortunate position to 93,680.

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The Bank of England held its Bank Rate at 5.25% on 21 March, as was widely expected. It’s the fifth time in a row the Rate has been frozen since it rose to its current level in August last year.

The Rate had previously undergone 14 consecutive rises (between December 2021, when it stood at just 0.1%, and last August). The next interest rate announcement will be on 9 May 2024.

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Over a million households are set to re-mortgage before the end of the year, including 182,000 families who will come to end of deals before the local elections in May

Almost 200,000 families will be hit by mortgage hikes before the local elections in May.

An analysis by Labour found over a million households are set to re-mortgage before the end of the year. This includes 182,000 households – or 6,100 each day – who will come to the end of their existing deals during April in the lead up to the local elections in England.

A typical household can expect to pay an additional £240 each month, according to the Bank of England.

The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee last week voted to hold interest rates at 5.25%.

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Since mortgage rates began rising, many of the nine million mortgaged households in the UK and close to two million landlords have been faced with the prospect of much higher payments.

Before that, many had become accustomed to ultra-low interest rates for more than a decade.

In this six-part series, we look at how much more people are really paying when they take out a new mortgage, how households are coping and if a mortgage crisis is afoot.

Last time, we revealed the extent to which people are raiding their savings, falling behind on their mortgage payments and having their homes repossessed.

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