Archive for June, 2011
Mortgage rates at lowest point
New mortgage rates have fallen to the lowest since 1988 with their interest rates. This is due to lenders finding cheap answers to raising funds within the financial market at the moment.
The bank of England has decided that they aren’t going to be raising the bank base rate any time soon which is why lenders are shopping round for cheaper deals. Mortgage deals however still require a minimum of 20% deposit.
“Lenders appear to be applying cuts equally across all loan-to-value (LTV) tiers, which is good news for first time buyers, as previously cuts were only being applied to the lower LTV bands.” Michelle Slade, Moneyfacts
First time buyer may have a quick entrance to the market
There were more details about the government scheme released today as more major banks are joining the FirstBuy scheme and looking to offer it within their mortgage offerings.
The scheme will offer first time buyers to take out a mortgage of 75% and only worrying about getting a 5% deposit as the council will offer the other 20% as an aid. On resale of the property the amount will be liable to be paid back so that the council are able to carry on offering the scheme to other people. This scheme will help over 10,000 people of the UK.
Housing market slumped
Estate agents are selling on average just one property per week, due to the housing market slump.
Homes coming onto the market are becoming an all-time high at the moment there just not saying any buyers. According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors the numbers of buyers have fallen.
Estate agents have average only 14.7 properties that have been sold throughout the period of March to May this is equivalent to one per week for them. This is looking at becoming an all-time low for estate agents as during the boom in 2002 the average agency was selling 40 properties every three months.
FirstBuy scheme due to be commencing
A new scheme to put first time buyers on the property ladder was finally launched today by the Government, it is called FirstBuy and it will see that the Government provides buyers with an equity loan of up to 20%.
This means that potential buyers will only need to pay a 5% deposit to qualify for a 75% mortgage; this was first discussed in the budget in March 2011. Chancellor Mr Osborne believes that the scheme will help 10,000 first time buyers to get on the property ladder.
Lenders believe that the mortgage market will remain flat
Despite a rebound in May lenders believe that the activity within the mortgage market will not be making a drastic move.
CML have confirmed that mortgage lending has gone up by 12% in May from previous months, the UK totalled an estimated £11.3bn in gross mortgage lending.
The housing market has remained subdued and the mortgage market saw a small increase from May 2010 to May 2011 by 1%. CML are not expecting any change to the market any time soon.
The lenders have aired their opinions as the Government announced the first time buyer’s scheme is going to be launched. The scheme will help 10,000 people get onto the property ladder.
First time buyers in Peterborough receive financial help
The city council of Peterborough could soon be offering financial support for first time buyers. Councillors have agreed to set aside £1million pounds for loans that people may wish to take out under the Local Authority Mortgage Scheme.
Councillors are in dispute as to whether this would be good for the city or whether doing this will not help the people that are in need. Conservative think it will be excellent for the city whereas Labour do not agree with it as they believe that it isn’t going to be helping the unemployed and low paid.
Surveys show that housing market is mostly flat
RICS have said that the housing market is looking mostly flat in the south west. Surveys have shown that a lot more housing are going on the market in the Devon and Cornwall area but at the same time a lot more sales are falling through.
In May 46% of surveyors reported a fall in house prices this is the lowest figure since March 2009 and this percentage was for the period January-May.
The number of properties surveyors have on their books has risen to 60 whereas the average sales per surveyors is only 13 which has fell dramatically and also the properties that are on the books are staying on there for a lot longer than intended.
Delays on the PPI compensation
Barclays lead on the PPI payment has not encouraged many others to follow their lead. Four big banks have refused to offer the compensation to the mis-sold payment protection insurance, Barclays is one of the only big named banks that have agreed to the compensation.
Due to the mass mis-selling of the payment protection insurance Barclays agreed that they have set aside £1m for compensation, complaints regarding the mis-sold PPI received before April 20th will be fully refunded with an added extra of 8% interest.
Complaints for mis-sold PPI is to be compensated
Barclays are too pay back all complaints made about mis-sold PPI (payment protection insurance) without looking into any of the situations.
Before the high court ruling any complaints about the mis-selling of the payment protection insurance will be refunded by Barclays. As a method to clear back log of the complaints Barclays are going to repay the compensation to the relevant clients before the 20th April.
Complaints thereafter will be assessed properly by the FSA anyone that is declined compensation is entitled to put a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
36 billion lost by savers
Accountancy figures show that £36bn of savers’ money is being lost due to inflation. Living costs have risen in Britain and this has had a huge impact in savings accounts as the average return is 1.6%. As the inflation rate is increasing the growing of the savers money is falling in value by billions.
British savers hold at least £1.003 trillion but just recently due to inflation the real value of savings is £36.45 billion this was recorded in April, these figures even include interest added to each savers amount.