The knock-on from the government’s spending review will cause an increase in rents throughout the year, according to Dorian Gonsalves at Belvoir, one of the UK’s largest specialise residential lettings agencies. Average UK rents for properties are now £703 per month, close to the level of spring 2008 (although slightly lower than the peak in [...]

Continue reading " Buy To Let Market Due To Rise In 2011 "

The UK’s biggest mortgage lender Halifax – now 41 per cent owned by the state after being bailed out during the financial crisis – is lifting its standard variable mortgage rates for new customers from the beginning of 2011. Although the mortgage rate rise is relatively small – up to 3.99 per cent from 3.5 [...]

Continue reading " Mortgage Rates Edge Higher "

The average two, three and five year fixed mortgage rates are now at the lowest level seen in 22 years, according to Moneyfacts website. Even so, borrowers are extremely thin on the ground (or else banks are ever more reluctant to lend), with mortgage approval numbers falling for the sixth month in a row, according [...]

Continue reading " Fixed Rate Mortgage Rates At Record Low "

House prices need to fall by a fifth to reach their long term average affordability of four year’s average earnings, as measured by Nationwide building society since 1974.  At the moment, house prices are more than five years’ earnings. In all the years since this measurement began, house prices reached their highest point in 2007, [...]

Continue reading " House Prices And Long Term Averages "

Lending for buy-to-let mortgages jumped by 12 per cent in the third quarter of 2010, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), reflecting increasing rent levels and fewer void periods. Companies like Paragon have restarted their buy-to-let products after a sustained period of inactivity. “Demand for rental property has never been as strong,” Paragon [...]

Continue reading " More Buy-To-Let Mortgages Available "