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 "

Property agents in London have reported a record gap between asking prices for houses and actual sales prices.  According to analysis by agents Douglas & Gordon, which compared the asking prices on the Rightmove website with those logged on the Land Registry, there is now an average £79,000 gap between the two figures. This compares [...]

Continue reading " The Gap Increases Between Asking Prices & Sale Prices "

Home owners and potential homebuyers have been peering into the tea leaves for months, trying to second-guess movements in interest rates.  Will we have another six months of historically low rates, or a year, or two years? A new survey from The Worldwide Property Group has found that half of its respondents think rates will [...]

Continue reading " Which Way Will Interest Rates Go? "

The number of pensioners with mortgages is rising relentlessly, according to new research from the Saga Group.  There are already a quarter of a million people over 65 who are still repaying mortgages and that figure could rise to a million within five years. “A lot of pensioners are relying on endowment policies or lump [...]

Continue reading " Grey Mortgages On The Rise "

The Economist has just published its annual Global House Prices survey, noting that average prices in Australia have jumped by 18 per cent in the year to September 2010, as a result of China’s thirst for minerals and an appreciating currency.  It also argues that prices in Spain have been kept artificially high by government [...]

Continue reading " Where Are The Bubbles? "

Since many borrowers are choosing to stick with their record low standard variable mortgage rates, to avoid paying a higher rate on a new deal, banks have decided to cut their rates still further. The average cost of a tracker loan dropped for the third consecutive month in October to hit a new record low [...]

Continue reading " Banks Drop Remortgage Rates "