Latest News
Santander Raises the LTV on First-time Buyer Mortgages
One of the largest banks in Great Britain, a Spanish-based Santander, formerly known as Abbey, announced that it will increase the maximum loan-to-value ratio available to the first-time buyers. In an effort to boost activity in the first?time buyer mortgages market, Santander will raise the maximum LTV for those buying new apartments and new... Read more
UK Mortgage Lending Falls 10% in November
The latest figures released by the Council of Mortgage Lenders on December 17th showed that UK mortgage lending declined by 10% in November, which fact raised concerns supported by the report on UK housing market environment for 2010 earlier published by the Bank of England. According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), total lending of... Read more
UK Remortgages Held Back by Market Conditions
As we have already reported, the figures published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders suggest that the number of mortgage loans taken out by UK borrowers in October 2009 hit the 2-year high as the activity on the British property market has been vigorous.rnAccording to the CML data, an average of 55,000 mortgages were granted to borrowers for home... Read more
Credit Rating Agencies Cause Borrowers to Miss Out Mortgage Deals
A recent news article published by The Times suggests that despite the efforts made by UK building societies and banks that are constantly reducing mortgage interest rates trying to meet their lending targets by the end of 2009, many borrowers are still unable to get approved for mortgages as credit reference agencies oftentimes provide lenders... Read more
New Offset Mortgage Deal Launched by First Direct
According to the news article published on the official web site of First Direct on November 30th, the lender announced launch of a new competitive offset tracker mortgage deal at a pay rate of 2.08% above the base rate, or 2.58%.Being one of the most attractive tracker deals on the UK market at the moment, the mortgage offer allows for 65% LTV... Read more
Merger Between Yorkshire and Chelsea Agreed
According to Mr. Cornish, chief executive of Yorkshire Building Society, merger talks that were earlier held between his building society and Chelsea were successful as Yorkshire Building Society has agreed to merge with Chelsea. The merger will potentially result in mass job cuts (it is still unclear how many of 3,000 combined employees will be... Read more
Leading UK Mortgage Lenders Might Merge Soon
Two largest British building societies – Yorkshire, which takes the 2nd position in the UK and Chelsea, which takes the 5th place, recently announced that they are currently holding negotiations about possible merger. Should the deal be agreed, a powerful financial organisation specialising in mortgage lending and savings accounts will be... Read more
Mortgage Borrowers Tend to Make Regular Overpayments on Loans
The latest survey carried out by major UK mortgage lenders, the results of which were published by The Independent on Thursday, December 3rd, suggests that UK mortgage borrowers prefer to make larger repayments on their loans rather than spend extra money. Several lenders were quoted in the article released by The Independent; those included... Read more
Gross Mortgage Lending Declines By Half – BSA
According to the latest press release published by the Building Societies Association on Monday, November 30th, the total value of mortgages approved by UK building societies amounted to £1,511 million in October, which means that it remained almost unchanged from its level in September - £1,565 million. At the same time, gross mortgage lending... Read more
UK Mortgage Approvals Reach Record Level in October
In its report “Lending to Individuals 2009”, published on November 30th, the Bank of England showed that mortgage approvals in the United Kingdom reached their highest level in 19 months in the month of October and that the pace of debt repayment by UK borrowers is extremely fast. According to the report, the number of mortgage approvals in... Read more