House owners who opted for expensive fixed-rate mortgages could be at an advantage by thousands of pounds by paying early with penalties. Experts are advising borrowers to break their Fixed Rate Mortgage loan in spite of exit penalties and increase in mortgage charges. Borrowers with a deposit of 25% who took a fixed loan at 6.25% on a £200,000 interest-only loan in June could save as much as £4,489 after choosing a tracker option at 4.79%. Individuals with a 40% deposit will fare better with HSBC’s lifetime tracker deal at 3.99%. Mortgage Monitor’s Les Jacobs said that many house owners have locked into fixed-rate deals for stability but are now paying more. (more…)

Owners are being pushed to sell their homes because they are not being able to make mortgage repayments. On an average more than 5000 properties are up for sale because of financial difficulties faced by the owners. Repossessions have increased by almost 70 per cent in 2008 in comparison to last year and according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ repossessions have increased to 45,000 in December from 18,900 in June. According to a survey by National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), as many as 20 per cent of sellers had difficulty in paying for their mortgages and such figures accounted for almost 50% of the properties being up for sale. (more…)

Last month even though mortgage lending showed a marked improvement, it is still lower than what it was a year ago, as revealed by the Council of Mortgage Lenders. In October, mortgage lending increased by 6.9 per cent to £18.7 billion while in September it was 17.5 billion. It was the first substantial increase since the month of July and the largest since April. However, lending was still at an abysmal low from £33.3 billion of the same month last year. (more…)

In recent times, there has been a withdrawal of several tracker mortgage options which has come as a blow to most borrowers. As a result, when homeowners plan to opt for a tracker mortgage option at the end of a deal, would be taken aback to find that they are left with limited options only. Currently, the fixed rate mortgages are very costly compared to tracker-rate mortgages. For most of the borrowers who till date had been on tracker Mortgage options for many years were in for a rude shock with the withdrawal of tracker options by many banks. Experts are of the opinion that cap and collar mortgages which were in vogue in the 1980s are ready to reappear very soon. As many as 23 tracker options have been withdrawn from the market after the Bank of England reduced the base rate to 3 per cent.

Lloyds TSB and Abbey, two of UK’s largest mortgage companies are ready with a whole new range of cheap tracker and fixed-rate mortgages at below five per cent and passing some of Bank of England’s drastic cut in interest rates last week to 3 per cent from 4.5 per cent. Most of the important banks are being forced to pass on the entire interest cut to the present Mortgage customers on standard variable rates. However, a fear is lurking in the minds of the new customers who think they would miss out on the fresh mortgage rates altogether. Abbey however, has announced that its two year fixed-rate deal for individuals who have a 25 % deposit, has dropped from 5.54 per cent to 4.99 per cent last week. (more…)

An extremely dismal scene of the UK mortgage market has been predicted by the experts. The mortgage market will get smaller by almost 80 per cent and the price of houses will fall steadily in the coming 12 months. Experts will that the mortgage market will take time to stabilize and will not happen before 2010. To add to the sad numbers, one of Though pre-tax profits increased by 11 percent, the UK’s second largest Mortgage Lender claimed to have dealings only worth £1bn of mortgages in the last six months till September, while last year in the same period dealings worth £3.6bn were done. According to predictions, the mortgage market will do businesses worth £18bn in 2008 as compared to £90bn in 2007. Figures of 2009 are not positive either. (more…)

Mortgage providers in an attempt to safeguard their lending policies revealed that they were interested in aiding the rookie buyers and consecutively prove to be supporting for the ailing Mortgage market.
But at the same time, these lenders had also opined that they need to measure against the risks, which might crop and be addressed as conferring undue advantages for buyers into this financial market.
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An influential association of MPs was informed by one of the leading economists about the further drop in the house prices of five to ten percent. The Finance Professor from Imperial College Business School in London, David Miles, felt that the after the further loss of 20% from the last year’s comparison, its high time when the property market needs to stabilize itself. These losses will thereby further adding to the 5 to 10 percent drop.
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Despite the government’s plan to considering the bailing of banks, the British house market still stands nabbed with a gloomy environment. It is also considered that things would not get better in a short term as the bail out plan would take further time, at present.

In august, as the data from Council of Mortgage Lenders reveals, there has been a comparative loss of 63%. This drop percentage is subjected to 10.6 billion dollars, causing the stupendous failing in the record of new mortgages to 42,000.
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Mortgage approvals have dipped to a record low by a whopping 64 percent since last August. According to BBA or British Banker’s Association, Mortgage approvals were at a meagre 21,086 in August. It is the lowest so far with the fall having started in 1997 down from 58,564 in 2007. Mortgage lending in August was £2.1 billion which is less than half in the last six months. The average mortgage lending in the last six months was £4.7 billion. The reason behind such dismal figures is mainly financial pressures on household and strict lending criteria. Government’s announcement on stamp duty has also led to reduced demand in August. These factors would exist for sometime now. According to BBA statistics director, less number of mortgage approvals meant lower gross lending and along with remortgage a reduced net lending amount as well. Looking at the trend, lending has been described as “dismal” by economists. The housing market is suffering mostly because of strict lending conditions. Activity in the housing market is not so great also because of the fact that there are expectations of a fall in house prices and the current financial crisis is also expected to add pressure to the already suffering housing market.