UK Mortgage & Property Related News
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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Three of the top five landlords in parliament are now Labour MPs, reflecting the shifting make-up of the ruling party ahead of major plans to tackle rental reform in government.
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AHMRC crackdown on buy-to-let tax scheme is panicking landlords, according to reports. Property 118 claimed to offer a way round stamp duty and capital gains tax amid a HMRC crackdown and clampdown, according to the I.
But it was served with a “stop notice” by the taxman last month, meaning it must immediately stop promoting its schemes. This follows a decision in February to issue what’s known as “reference numbers” to its arrangements, a signal that HMRC believes the schemes equate to tax avoidance.
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What if you own a property but want to let it out so you can buy another place to live? David Jackson discusses the pros and cons of ‘let-to-buy’ in his latest Q&A
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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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A prominent rental market analyst is warning that elements of the reform legislation proposed by Labour “are casting dark shadows” over the lettings sector, with few landlords likely to sleep easy at possible threats to their investments.
Doug Shephard, director of the Home website – a listings platform that also conducts respected monthly market analyses for the lettings and sales sectors – says the new government’s upcoming Renters Rights Bill may prove to be final straw for many landlords.
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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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