The booming Northern Ireland market helped the average UK house price to hit new record of £274k

The Office for National Statistics reports that house prices are now £57,000 higher than the peak seen in May 2008 just before the financial downturn as the average UK property value now sits at £274,000 with values in Northern Ireland now rising faster than London. Read the article here.

House sales are back on the up after a slowdown in the early months of 2015

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Home purchase loans came to a total of £20.5bn in June making that the highest level seen since July 2008. That represents a 29pc rise compared with May’s lending figures, and a 15pc rise compared with June 2014. Read the article here.

Mortgage interest tax relief crackdown sees landlords’ profit decline

Landlords will only be able to claim the basic rate of tax of 20% rather than 45% as tax relief for landlords on mortgage interest payments fall. While experts warn landlords may hike rents for tenants to compensate, it could still be a good thing for first-time buyers in a property market with limited supply. Read the article here.

Are property investors entitled to increase in value?

Usually, persons who inject cash into the joint purchase of a property are entitled to a portion of the increase in the property’s value. However, if you received a cash loan that you then used as a deposit to purchase property then your lenders are entitled to 0% of any increase in value as making a loan does not carry with it the entitlement to capital. Read the article here.

As landlords borrow vast sums to fund property empires, Britain may be sitting on a £200bn buy-to-let time-bomb

There are more than two million private landlords in Britain that an increase of 600,000 since the financial crash, accounting for 15 per cent of all home loans and £200 billion of borrowing. This figure is close to the national debt of Greece and is only growing as new buy-to-let mortgages account for 18 per cent of all new mortgages. Read the article here.

Mortgages in the UK are being paid off in record time

The advent of historic low interest rates means that more and more British households can now use spare funds to pay off home loans, resulting in a £13bn cut in debt in the first quarter of 2015. The first quarter repayment figure of £13bn was a record high, up from £12.6bn in the first quarter and £11.1bn in the same quarter last year. Read the article here.

Should you buy cheap Greek property?

Since the onset of the financial crisis, property values in Greece have devalued by about 40pc. Therefore buying immovable assets in a country mired in crisis is a high-risk strategy as you could find your Greek home valued in drachmas before long, while the cash-strapped government could be tempted to raise property taxes. Read the article here.

Virgin Money will update its buy-to-let lending criteria on 8 July

Virgin Money’s minimum property price will rise by £10,000 to £50,000. They have also been offering some of the most competitive deals to landlords, with a two-year tracker deal starting at just 2.09% among its range but now they will limit the number of properties that can be bought to four and a maximum loan of £2m. Read the article here.

Average new mortgage rate hits low of 2.59%

Even though borrowers are benefiting from new mortgage rates at a record low, mortgage approvals fell unexpectedly in May as 64,434 mortgages for house purchase were approved; down from 67,580 in April but still above the six-month average of 61,844. Read the article here.

British buyers will get first bite on new apartments being launched in Canary Wharf

While developers of other London new-builds are usually criticised for marketing in the Far East, Canary Wharf flats in the heart of London’s banking hub, will not be marketed overseas but Canary Wharf Group says it is not feasible to exclude non-British buyer. The cheapest, studio apartments, start from £395,000 while one-bedroom flats start at £495,000 and Two-bedroom homes will start from £795,000. Read the article here.

The crisis in Greece could affect UK mortgage rates

Not to worry, if the British mortgage market needs it there could be a fresh injection of cheap loans from the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS). According to David Hollingworth of broker London & Country said: “The Funding for Lending Scheme was introduced in 2012 to counter the tightening of lending conditions in the UK brought about by the eurozone crisis.” Read the article here.

Because of lender competition, interest-only mortgages are easier to access

Despite loans being blamed for inflating housing market ahead of the 2008 crisis, these risky loans are making a comeback, as lenders introduce new interest-only loans with a deposit of 25 per cent and the opportunity to clear the debt when borrowers sell their property. Read the article here.

Forecasts say mortgage rates must rise

Even as the Post Office launched a two-year fixed rate at 1.05pc, that undercut the Yorkshire Building Society previous best two-year rate of 1.07pc; some brokers say that the five-year fixed rates could even fall to an unprecedented low of 1.99pc if current trends continue. Still others are forecasting an inevitable increase in mortgage rates. Read the article here.

New borrowers from Yorkshire are now allowed to offset cost of home loan against savings for 4 years

For the monthly cost of £650 on a £150,000 mortgage, Yorkshire BS is offering customers who can stump up a 35 per cent deposit on an offset loan at 2.19 per cent. While borrowers with a 25 per cent deposit can get a loan at 2.59 per cent. Read the article here.

Sales hit seven-year high for Right-to-buy

The more than 12,300 social homes that were sold off by councils in England through right-to-buy last year represents the highest number in seven years with London boroughs accounting for 34% of sales and tenants who had taken advantage of a discount of up to £102,700 on market value. Read the article here.

Properties available for let take a nose dive

According to data from the Association of Residential Letting Agents properties listed for rent fell by 7% in May even though demand remains the same. In fact, ARLA indicates that in London, where demand for rental homes is fierce there is actually the least amount of rental properties per branch, with only 134 managed in May, compared to 273 in Scotland. Read the article here.

Renters in the UK pay more than any country in Europe

According to the National Housing Federation, British renters pay a higher proportion of their wages for rent, which is almost 40% of their income in comparison to the European average of 28%. In fact, the UK rents average €902 or £750 a month in comparison to the European average of €481 or £400. Read the article here.

Homebuyers are putting down a record £72,000 or 30pc deposit

The average house deposit in June last year was £71,474 and last month, the figure rose to £72,302. Rising house prices mean that not only do buyers need to find bigger deposits, but the increased equity also helps those already on the property ladder to put down larger amounts on their next home. Earlier this week figures from Halifax also showed house prices in the UK had risen by more than £100 a day in April, taking the average value across Britain to £196,412. Read the article here.

Gap in house prices between Knightsbridge and Blaenau Gwent was 1,500% in 2014 compared with 516% in 1995

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the divide between the most and least expensive areas to buy a home in England and Wales grew to its widest level in at least two decades in 2014. This is as while in Kensington and Chelsea, the median house price was £1.2m in 2014, in Blaenau Gwent in Wales it was just £75,000. Read the article here.

UK property divide widens as one square metre of space hits £12k in Kensington

Here’s the question: Would you rather have a shoebox in London or a mansion in Wales? This is as for the price of a 40 square metre one-bedroom flat in Kensington and Chelsea, a buyer could instead opt for a 512 square metre mansion in Wales. The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea is the most expensive area in the UK with one square metre costing about £12,000. Read the article here.

Mortgage lending figures for May show a big increase

Britain’s high street banks approve almost 73,000 mortgages in May compared to a 20-month low of just over 60,000 in December. The size of loans approved for a house purchase also increased to nearly £170,000, compared to a typical loan of £159,000 two years ago. Read the article here.

You can get a mortgage at age 92

While many have been denied loans because they are deemed too old but now the tide is turning with mostly smaller building societies and a few private banks, who are now offering mortgages to those in their late 60s, 70s, 80s and, even in their 90s. Read the article here.

With demand for first homes rocketing ever upwards, second-steppers are finding it easier to move up the property ladder

For those who want a bigger home, now is the time as loan rates are at an all time low and first time buyer demand is at an all time high. Read the article here.

Halifax rectifies mortgage document for client

While it may take some time a “transfer of mortgaged property” should be no problem as long as the correct information is submitted with the leasehold and freehold titles; particularly if the name or address of the legal owner needs to be amended. Read the article here.

A second kitchen could affect your chances of getting a mortgage

Estate agents will tell you that lenders tend not to like properties with two kitchens as it usually makes it possible to rent out part of the property and therefore inappropriate for residential occupancy. Most importantly, it is required by law to apply a separate council tax band to every “building, or part of building, which has been constructed or adapted for use as separate living accommodation”. Read the article here.

Rent jumps to a new record high of £778 a month

While the average UK rents rose by 4.5% to £778 East of England sees the highest yearly rise ever seen in any region at 13% in May by £819; London rents also rose by 7.4% and remains the most expensive at £1,207. Read the article here.

After helping initially, help-to-buy helps lock out first-time buyers

While the Help-to-buy scheme was created to allow homebuyers with just 5% of a property’s price to buy a new-build home only a lucky few first-time buyers have benefited as when buyers borrowed 20% of the purchase price from the government, the mortgage was recorded as a 75% loan. Read the article here.

Skipton International offers mortgage to British expat pensioners

For retired Britons aged 70 and under who want to buy property in the UK. To qualify, the income must come from a pension, not partly from investment income for example and the loan must be repaid by age 85. Rates include a five year discount rate of 3.99pc and a five year fixed rate of 5.24pc, both with fees of £999. Read the article here.

Zombie bank now owns more than 130,000 Northern Rock mortgages

Northern Rock customers will soon find out that their mortgages were sold to fund Granite, a complex financing vehicle that Northern Rock used to raise £50bn on the financial markets and to fund its mortgage lending before the credit crunch. Read the article here.

Number of homes for sale falls for fourth months to lowest since 1978

Even though property prices are forecast to rise 25% in five years the housing market is currently in supply crisis as homes for sale plunge to lowest level for 37 years and the post-election rise in supply has yet to materialise. Read the article here.

Government cuts the amount of support it offers to struggling homeowners

The change will come into effect on 6 July 2015 as the current homeowners who benefit from support mortgage interest (SMI) and receive aid for monthly payments on a mortgage worth up to £200,000 based on an interest rate of 3.63% will be shortchanged as the mortgage rate threshold is reduced to 3.12%. Meaning that on a £100,000 mortgage arranged over 25 years the amount that can be claimed each month will fall from £303 to £260. Read the article here.

After charging a landlord £616 to change a light fitting Foxtons now faces a £42MILLION legal bill

Dr Townley, a law lecturer at King’s College London, signed up with Foxtons to let and manage his London property in 2011. Foxtons used a subcontractor called Maintenance1st to replace a light fixture. When Dr Chris Townley was billed £550 plus £66 VAT, he later found out that Foxtons charged him a 49 per cent mark up on the work. Read the article here.

With first time buyers finding it very difficult to own a home, one in three older children are moving back in with parents

Some are calling it a housing crisis as first-time buyers need a deposit of £9,000 to qualify for a mortgage on the average home which costs £179,817 therefore forcing a rising number of adults to move back in with parents as they save. Read the article here.

How to get the other party to pay their half of a joint tenant mortgage

If you own a joint tenant mortgage and the other party has moved out then it can be difficult to get them to pay their half of the mortgage. Well depending on whether you are paying an interest-only mortgage or a capital repayment mortgage you may make an application to the court for a declaration that you own more than 50pc of the property and get the property transferred into your sole name. Read the article here.

Homeowners are finding it hard to get new loans because of new rules

The April 2014 mortgage market review (MMR) has resulted in approximately 40% of homeowners becoming mortgage prisoners and who are delaying remortgaging as evidenced the low number of people remortgaging despite the cheap deals now available. Read the article here.

While values are now just £1.2k off 2007 peak, house price growth slows to 5.1%

According to the Land Registry while prices in Slough have risen by 13.7% in the last 12 months, overall house prices sit at £179,817 in England and Wales and only the North East has seen values fall since last year. Read the article here.

Risky products are being withdrawn by high street banks

Even loyal customers of over 60 years are being refused short-term loans. As was the case for one individual who wanted a short-term bridging loan of £165,000 for only a few months to purchase a £785,000 property. Read the article here.

New tracker mortgage rate falls to a record low of 0.98pc

Chelsea Building Society has made available, a two-year tracker that charges Bank Rate (0.5pc) plus 0.48 percentage points, making the total rate you pay 0.98pc. However, while the mortgage that tracks Bank Rate has gone below 1pc for first time, this deal must move up or down in line with Bank Rate. Read the article here.

Living on a canal boat is becoming a serious option for many cash-strapped buyers

While the average house costs £200,000 a 50ft narrowboat can be purchased for as little as £20,000. However, if you don’t have all the cash for your canal boat you cannot take out a home loan as you are not living on a fixed plot of land. Read the article here.

Buyer beware: making an offer on a house could cost you a £1,495 fee

Estate agents call it a “client progression fee” when they demand a payment from potential buyers, sometimes as much as £2,000. Thereby, double-charging on the same property by demanding cash from would-be buyers at the same time as pocketing fees from sellers. Read the article here.

You have many reasons to be happy if you’ve been paying off a home loan for years

With rates still at record lows, long time borrowers can now access these rates if their loan-to-value is 60 per cent or less. To calculate the loan-to-value divide the outstanding balance on the mortgage by the property’s value and multiplying the result by 100. Subsequently, if the balance owed is £45,000 on a home now worth £110,000, the loan-to-value is just over 40 per cent. Read the article here.

House prices resume their growing ways

While house prices fell by 0.8% in March, April has reported a 0.9% increase; subsequently rising the England and Wales average house price to £179,81. However, the annual rate of growth fell to a 14-month low of 5.1%. Read the article here.

Home-sellers be on the lookout for email hacking

Fraudsters are aggressively targeting housing transactions by intercepting emails between buyers, sellers and their solicitors and sending false bank account details to divert the proceeds of house sales. These criminals have so far stolen a reported £340,000 from one individual and now another case has been reported of another individual who has been robbed of £270,000. Read the article here.

Home buyers will have more options as properties for sale increase

While according to Rightmove asking prices dipped by 0.1% in the month before the Election; the market can be expected to bounce back as quickly as it did in 2010. As in the three months following the Election in 2010 the number of properties coming to market increased by 17 per cent. Read the article here.

Estate agents report a post election boom in luxury property sales

With fears of Labour’s proposed mansion tax over and the tax loophole for non-doms having been preserved, estate agents worked overtime to deal with the renewed interest of wealthy buyers. Resulting in shares in Foxtons rising by 13%, and more than £100m of central London property being sold in just 24-hours. Read the article here.

Child costs could have your mortgage denied

Young couples planning a family or pregnant women are being discriminated against by mortgage lenders as the faced “blanket assumptions” that they could not be trusted to keep up mortgage repayments after they had children. This is as child costs are being taken into account by lenders when assessing future customers’ ability to pay. Read the article here.

Crowdfunding site sees 126 buyers snap up Surrey home in 35 minutes

Buy-to-let investments continue to increase on crowdfunding sites such as Property Partner with a £212,900 two-bedroom flat in Byfleet being snapped up by 126 investors at an average of £1,700 at a rate of £6,000 per minute which saw the property fully funded in just 35 minutes. Read the article here.

Buy-to-let soars as landlords enjoy £14bn tax breaks

The number of landlords has increased by more than one-third over the past six years as 2.1 million taxpayers declared income from property in the 2012-13 financial year, up from 1.5 million in 2007-08 and claimed £6.3bn in tax relief against the cost of mortgage interest. Read the article here.

UK house prices higher due to biggest shortage of homes for sale in nearly six years

While agreed sales across the UK stood at -3 per cent in April, prices rose across all UK regions for the first time since August last year and April’s fall in new instructions was the steepest since May 2009. Read the article here.

For only £50 you can become a buy-to-let investor with crowdfunding

For a one-off fee of 2%, and an ongoing charge of 12.5% plus VAT taken from the monthly rental income, private investors can put money towards the purchase of homes across London and the south-east with crowdfunding website Property Partner. Read the article here.

Britain’s thriving buy-to-let industry is set to pass the £1 trillion mark

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders the ever increasing buy-to-let industry is set to surge past the £1 trillion (£1,000 billion) mark, accounting for more than 20% of housing wealth which is a 70% growth since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007. Read the article here.

1.07% is the new all-time low for fixed rate mortgages

While many have predicted a coming increase in the five and 10-year rates, this may no longer be the case as Yorkshire Building Society has launched the lowest ever two-year fixed rate deal at 1.07% accompanied by total fees of £1,499 and a 35% deposit. Read the article here.

Nationwide expects the housing market to strengthen in 2015

Graham Beale, chief executive of Nationwide, Britain’s largest building society reported a 32% rise in underlying profit to £1.2bn for 2014-15, and said it had helped almost 46,000 first-time buyers onto the property ladder. The society also sees no slowing down for the property market in the year to come. Read the article here.

The election effect eliminated £140k off prime London homes in just three months

The highest priced apartments of London were severely affected by the election effect with the average price falling by 8% or nearly £140k, indicating that flats saw prices slump faster than the recession. Read the article here.

House prices are set to return to pre-election conditions

Now that the election is over, the fall in house prices experienced in May will revert as the low supply of properties means the odds are still weighted in favour of sellers. This as there was a 0.1% fall in house prices and across England and Wales, the average asking price fell by £242 to £285,891. Read the article here.

UK developers increase new housing registrations by 18%

Housebuilders across the UK registered 40,281 new homes between January and March and are set to build 18 per cent more homes in the coming months compared to last year, but this is still below the 53,420 registered during the first quarter of 2007. Read the article here.

If housing is a main concern of yours then the SNP’s rise to power is good news

The SNP has demonstration a history of fighting for the rights of renters and since the creation of the Scottish parliament has invested £675m in affordable housing in 2009-10, approving 8,663 new homes at a time when the development rate elsewhere began to tank with a further £970m being budgeted for development in the three year period up to March 2015. Read the article here.

First rate rise predicted for July 2016

According to experts, with the bank rate set at 0.5pc for more than six years and looking to remain that way for at least another year, the market now suggests that rates won’t increase until July 2016. Read the article here.

Spain may be your best bet for bargain properties

As the housing crisis comes to an end, experts say there are bargains galore in Spain and Zoopla is advertising four-bedroom townhouses in Almeria for £19k. Overall, the average values across that region has fallen by 48%. Read the article here.

Real estate agents are asking for a £2,000 deposit to secure homes

If you want to be taken seriously by some real estate agents you will be asked to fork over a substantial deposit. Real estate agency firms like Brian Cox are demanding this fee and in return they will take the desired property off the market. Read the article here.

Higher mortgage rates for buy-to-let would make it not feasible for investors in 7 of 10 regions

With continuous property price increases and ever shrinking profit margins, landlords are vulnerable to higher rates, Subsequently, Britain’s two million buy-to-let investors remain anxious about any new policy changes that may do just that. Read the article here.

An average salary of £41,000 is needed to become a first-time buyer

While the UK’s average wage is £22,000, first-time buyers need a minimum of £41,000 to get onto the property ladder outside of London and minimum of £77,000 in order to buy their first home in London. Read the article here.

A cheap ten-year fixed-rate mortgage can be a good option

If you are free to switch after 5 years choosing a 10-year deal can be a great option; particularly with the many available options to choose from and the dramatically decreased rates. In fact, Moneyfacts reports that there are more than 70 ten-year fixed-rate loans on offer and that is up from just 20 at the start of last year. Read the article here.

Your pension contributions may stop you from getting a loan

Paying the relatively high amount of 6% of salary into your pension may get your mortgage application denied even if you pass the agreement in principle and valuation stages as lenders will express concerns about your ability to pay if interest rates increase. Read the article here.

Buy-to-let investors must take action before June or face harsh penalties

On average, thousands of landlords with long-term tenants could face fines of £36,000 as well as lose the right to evict occupants if they fail to place any deposits that were taken before April 6, 2007, into one of the three government-backed protection schemes before June 23. Read the article here.

Be wary of headline deals as they may come with substantial fees that make them not worthwhile

One market leading two-year fixed-rate mortgage deal at 1.09pc actually costs almost £200 more than other deals, this is the reality so many borrowers would be better off choosing deals that charge a slightly higher interest rate but come with lower fees and charges. Read the article here.

The IFS warns that it may do more harm than good to give housing association tenants the Right-to-Buy their home

Experts say that if the Conservative’s proposal to extend Right-to-Buy to 1.3million housing association tenants becomes a reality then the consequences could be harmful to public finances and reduce social housing. Read the article here.

You could be forced to move as landlords increase rent due to spike in renting demand

If you are forced to rent you may encounter unexpected increases as landlords take advantage of the renting demand surge. These increases are as much as over 20%; undoubtedly there needs to be some kind of rent cap and more security for tenants. Read the article here.

Now you only need a 20% deposit to get a ten-year mortgage for under 3%

This new deal offered by Barclays comes with a £999 fee but makes sense compared to the more restrictive terms and higher deposits demanded by competitors First Direct and Nationwide, who require deposits of 35% and 40% respectively. Read the article here.

For the first time house price growth in UK cities surpasses central London

Oxford and Bristol are the cities with the highest growth rising 13.4 percent 9.7 percent and 7.8 percent respectively, year on year over the past ten years. Even though prices in Greater London rose another 11.8 percent, this was helped by the outer boroughs as Central London homes have seen levels of growth decline. Read the article here.

The Co-op bank now has the new record low fixed-rate mortgage deal at 1.09%

As competition among lenders continues to escalate the Co-op bank has joined the fray with its new two-year fixed-rate home loan. This move could only be the beginning as experts anticipate that rates could go below 1% for the first time in a matter of days. Read the article here.

It’s the one year anniversary of the tougher new mortgage rules

The effects of the new Mortgage Market Review rules have definitely been felt from lenders approving fewer loans, borrowers waiting longer for approvals and thousands who are stuck inside undesirable mortgages. Overall, while there were 48,500 new mortgages approved in February 2014 only 40,600 have been approved by February this year. Read the article here.

10-year fixed rate mortgages are increasing

After the historic lows of under 3 per cent, First Direct and Nationwide have withdrawn their ten-year fixed rate mortgages with First Direct increasing its market-leading 2.89pc deal to 3.09pc; this move could be the start of a general increase in the cost of ten-year mortgages. Read the article here.

Here are some tips to securing a home loan this spring as affordability rules are relaxed

As the new affordability rules continue to be criticised and thousands of potential buyers have been frozen out of the mortgage market now with new amendments on the horizon applicants who play their cards right now could be on the first rung of the housing ladder by the summer. Read the article here.

Abolishing stamp duty for first-time buyers may push up house prices

With Labour promising to exempt first-time buyers from paying stamp duty on homes costing up to £300,000, critics of the proposal say this could lead to an increase in house prices and first-time buyers with more cash to put down may be tempted to offer more to secure a house. Read the article here.

Since the last election, rents have outstripped inflation but have grown at only half the pace of house prices

Compared to the average monthly rent of £659 back in May 2010, the current average rent is £768; yet despite the rises, rents are still slightly below their record peak with data showing that 7.4% of tenants are in arrears – far lower than five years ago. Read the article here.

Ed Miliband promises construction on 1m new homes by 2020

The labour leader has increased his campaign offer on housebuilding by saying a Labour government will “start construction on 1m new homes by 2020” – an increase on the party’s pledge last year to build 200,000 home a year by 2020. Read the article here.

Tenants in private homes in Great Britain are now dealing with the highest rent increases in more than 18 months

The Office of National Statistics showed an increase in rents on private homes by 2.1% in the year to March which is the highest annual pace of change since the summer of 2013. The private rent rate increase means a property let for £500 a month in March 2014 would be rented for £510.50 in March 2015. Read the article here.

The number of cheap deals on the market has risen more than three-fold in a year

As pension freedoms spark flood of cheap buy-to-let mortgages with the average two-year rate dropping from 3.7pc to 3.45pc in just six months. Additionally, investors can choose from 226 different fixed rate deals compared to 162 six months ago and 71 a year ago. Read the article here.

Your best bet as a homebuyer would be to secure a deal before the election

Following a 0.9% increase across the country in March, UK’s largest independent estate agent believes that house prices are likely to rise after the general election. This is as Haart’s index, which is based on sales at 100 branches around the UK, put the average price of a home at a new high of £206,726. Read the article here.

Homebuyers can now lock into a record low 1.99 per cent five-year fixed rate mortgage

While the deal comes with a big £1,499 fee, homebuyers can now lock into a record low rate below 2 per cent and is less of an impact for someone taking out a five-year loan than a two year deal. Read the article here.

Without London, the annual house price growth slows

As the catalyst of London’s ability to drag up house prices fades, property prices across England and Wales rose 5.6% annually last month, which is lowest annual increase since November 2013, as follows a 6.5% yearly increase in February and a recent high of 11.2% in August 2014. Read the article here.

As home shortages continue to inflate property prices, Britain now faces a ‘very real housing crisis’

The RICS predicts that property prices are predicted to rise 2.5% during 2015 and then increase by 4.5 per cent each year for the next five years; while Northern Ireland will see the strongest value growth overall. Read the article here.

Your pound sterling income could have some European lenders hesitant to offer you a loan

New European Union rules threaten overseas holiday homes. The regulations, known as the Mortgage Credit Directive, will bring in a raft of rules including new requirements for firms that offer “foreign currency mortgages”. Read the article here.

February saw mortgage lending dip 16%

According to the CML 18,700 loans with a total value of £2.7bn were advanced to first-time buyers in February, however as reported by banks and building societies, this number reflects a 16% year on year fall. Read the article here.

While wealthy homebuyers are being refused mortgages, pensioners can now access loans up to age 105

You can still be too old for a loan even when your income is £65,000; this is the message that some lenders are sending. This means that home owners are still not being offered the same flexibilities, even when they have the most secure form of income. Read the article here.

Buy-to-let investors have been raking in returns of up to 1,400% since 1996

Britain’s property boom continues to rise as landlords cash in while the performance of shares, bonds and cash all trail behind. In fact, on average, £1,000 invested in a buy-to-let asset in the final quarter of 1996 was worth £14,987 by the end of last year. Read the article here.

5m borrowers are facing a mortgage rate increase instead of a decrease

Despite record low mortgage rate offerings by most lenders, the Bank of England data shows that SVR rates are in fact rising. Subsequently, millions of buyers are not capitalising on the new record low rates. Read the article here.

First-timers are buying later because of the downturn in housing turnover

Baby boomer home ‘hoarding’ means average property changes hands every 23 years compared to eight in the 1980s and rental properties are staying in the hands of landlords longer. Even while cash makes up a bigger proportion of money spent on house purchases than mortgages. Read the article here.

David Cameron’s inheritance tax will not carve into Labour’s Lead in London

Hopefully the new property policy will help end “the unfairness of a tax that has crept up on countless ordinary families”, and particularly those in London and the south east of England as pledged by Boris Johnson; although it may not return the political advantage that the Conservatives hope for. Read the article here.

Homebuying decreases while car sales soar

According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, March 2015 saw the sale of almost 500,000 new cars making it the best month this century and the 37th month in a row that there has been year-on-year growth in business. However when compared to property buying the opposite is happening. Read the article here.

The proportion of 20 to 45 year olds saving for a deposit drops to 43% from 57%

Amid high prices, low income and saving for deposit Britain is becoming a nation of renters as 20 to 45 year olds are facing steep barriers to homeownership. Read the article here.

82pc of renters in London fear that they will rent forever

Following an 18-month period of rapid house price growth across Britain that saw prices jumping 10.4pc in England and 17.4pc in Greater London in 2014; many young workers, couples and families have given up on the dream of homeownership and are resigned to renting for life. Read the article here.

Lenders relax age restrictions to encourage buy-to-let investments

Pensioners can now access buy-to-let mortgages that last until they are 105 years old because of new pension withdrawal freedom. However, the new loans for the first time allow people to borrow throughout retirement, will increase the number of landlords and could push up house prices. Read the article here.

Scraping together a bigger deposit will open door to much better mortgage deals

Finding at least 10% is ideal when trying to get onto the property ladder this spring as your monthly payments will be far lower. If you only have a 5% deposit you may be faced with higher rates and larger monthly payments. Read the article here.

New pension revolution is likely to put even more strain on an already taxing property market

A flood of new property investment is expected as pensioners start redrawing lump sums this April, even if the upcoming election temporary deters some from investing right away. This is evidenced by the 19% increased site visits reported by Rightmove as there were 115 million visitors to the site during last month. Read the article here.

Too old for a regular mortgage but not too old for buy-to-let

While mortgage lenders reject persons in their 50s, individuals up to 105 years old are able to acquire a buy-to-let mortgage, no problem. The requirements to get a property to live in yourselves versus buying one to let continues to astound the market. Read the article here.

Acquiring a mortgage frightens three-quarters of home-owners and buyers

Mortgage lending fell to its lowest level in two years last month and 32 per cent of those polled or more than seven in ten Britons said the ability to get a mortgage is a very serious problem. Read the article here.

New designs backed by Tories may be unliveable

The government’s new housing design advisory panel has produced a 20-page Starter Homes Design document that favours quaint buildings with a cottagey feel but their guide makes no mention of space standards that could make the homes of the future generous or liveable. Read the article here.

UK economy reaches 13-year high leading to increase in mortgage demand

Bank of England reports highest mortgage approvals in six months as Gfk poll finds consumer confidence helped by low inflation and buoyant job market. Nick Moon, Gfk’s managing director of social research, said “At +4, the index is the highest it has been for almost 13 years, and it has gone up a striking eight points in just three months”. Read the article here.

Buy-to-let mortgages in your 80s?

New pension rules allowing savers to access their money in one go will lead to an increase in buy-to-let investments but what about older borrowers? These days some lenders are a little more flexible and may offer lending to a maximum of 80 or 85. Read the article here.

Build more social homes to aid the housing crisis

With 1.8 million people currently on the social housing waiting list and only 8,650 new social rented homes scheduled to be built across the south east each year; people have forgotten that decent housing is a right and not a privilege, says Green MEP Keith Taylor. Read the article here.

Property in the eurozone is 45% cheaper than before the crash

A fifth of foreign buyers in Spain this year are expected to come from Britain. A successful purchase relies on three crucial steps: researching an area, sorting finances and seeking advice. Trading £500 at today’s rates means nearly 100 euros extra to spend, compared with a year ago. Read the article here.

In some London boroughs house prices went up by more than the prime minister was paid in the year 2013-14

According to figures from the National Housing Federation, the recent boom in house prices means that in two thirds of London boroughs properties effectively “earned” more than the average nurse’s salary in the 2013-14 financial year or more than a solicitor earns in a year. Read the article here.

The housing market may be reaching a tipping point

A new shelter report, categorising potential buyers as the Flyers and the Triers, examines the struggles of regular persons trying to get on the housing ladder as not just a personal problem but is actually evidence of a systemic failure of society. Read the article here.

First time buyers must take care to find the right scheme for them

The Government is now backing three different Help to Buy schemes to try to bring the first rung of the ladder a little closer, unfortunately the confusing nature of the growing Help to Buy world means some of the schemes may be far more effective than others. Read the article here.

The wealthy tenants of London’s West End are now paying rent one year in advance to secure homes

While in a normal year a home to let in the capital’s richest addresses will attract two or three bids, currently six or seven tenants are bidding for each one, according to agency EJ Harris, and the increased competition is driving up prices and persuading people to pay in advance to seal the deal. Read the article here.

Buy-to-let rise may not be good for the UK

From 6 April, over-55s will be free to cash in their pension funds, with many expected to invest in buy-to-let properties, unleashing a new wave of wealthy older people into the housing market so young people may be pushed out of the market as demand outstrips availability. Read the article here.

First-time buyers only need to save £8,000 to get a £200k home

The Help To Buy Isa scheme requires only a tiny deposit because of a combination of the lucrative bonus from the new Isa and existing homebuyer schemes that offer interest-free loans. Read the article here.

First-time buyers try match-making service to find co-buying partners

Members of PropertyBuyersMatch.co.uk are able to create an online profile outlining their property and personal preferences for the right co-buying partner for their situation. The service isn’t exclusively for first-time buyers as people looking to invest in buy-to-let properties or second homes are also encouraged to sign up. Read the article here.

UK residents will acquire £10,000 in debt by end of 2016

With the total amount of non-mortgage debt equating to nearly £9,000 per household last year, the average household will owe nearly £10,000 in debts, a new hire. Additionally, according to the report from PwC, the total outstanding non-mortgage borrowing grew by nearly £20bn or 9% in 2014, to reach £239bn, marking that the fastest rate of growth in a decade. Read the article here.

Homes earn more than their owners in London

For the past two years, according to Halifax, the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has seen the biggest explosion in house prices relative to pay with average prices there having gone up nearly £200,000. Read the article here.

About 640,000 people blacklisted in a secret database, making it hard to secure a mortgage or loan

The little-known National Hunter database was set up in 1993 with a mandate to prevent fraud. Now it is owned by banks and lenders can register their concerns about any customer applications, therefore making it virtually impossible for that customer to gain a loan almost anywhere. Read the article here.

All you need to know about base rate tracker mortgages

Trackers are back as several banks are offering super-flexible trackers loans with interest rates as low as 1.09 per cent; which can really great for some. A tracker loan means that the interest rate on the loan tracks the base rate. Read the article here.

Parents are putting off having children as a result of high housing costs

Research shows would-be buyers putting off having children and considering taking part in medical research in order to raise funds for a deposit as persons aged under 40 found the high cost of renting and homeownership were having a big impact on their life choices. Read the article here.

More buyers are finding it harder to find a deposit

Rate increase fears have declined sharply after rising near the end of 2014, so many Britons are holding off on buying a home. Yet the main reason for not buying remains getting a deposit with 61pc unable to source the money needed, up from 57pc before. Read the article here.

There are options for those who no longer fit lenders’ criteria

Mortgage brokers cite interest rate stress tests and tougher evidence of income and spending required by lenders as the reasons why many applicants fail. Subsequently, if you are over 45, self-employed, divorced and remortgaging late in life; then you might encounter problems but you do have options. Read the article here.

RICS reports increases in house prices across the UK, except for London

According to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), as a fall in the number of houses coming on to the market pushed prices up across the rest of the country, the capital experienced declines for the sixth month in a row. However, RICS suggested the falls would be temporary with surveyors expecting London prices to increase by 30% in the next five years. Read the article here.

Banks blame new legislation for rejecting loyal customers

Mortgage lenders continue to use the rules as an excuse to trap customers and profit from their misfortunates. As more and more borrowers are facing challenges to move homes or remortgage in order to access cheaper rates, lenders use the tough affordability criteria of the new legislations to their benefit. Read the article here.

10 steps to save £1,000s on your mortgage

Martin Lewis, the money-saving expert has a particular system for cutting the cost of buying a home at what in 20 years could be seen as the “best time in history to remortgage”. His steps include; how to check your current deal, being cautious with standard variable Rates (SVRs) and benchmarking your cheapest available deal at speed. Read the article here.

Just how low could mortgage rates really go?

While lenders tack on a substantial £1,499 fee, the mortgage battle continues as Yorkshire Building Society launches its lowest ever rate, a two-year fixed deal at 1.18 per cent, shortly after banking giant HSBC launched its record-low two-year fixed-rate mortgage at 1.19 per cent. Read the article here.

Many are concerned about remortgage for home improvements

It can make a lot of financial sense to stay in your home and improve it rather than moving according to Sarah Beeny’s Double Your House for Half the Money programme, however be careful how you determine how much you can afford to spend. Read the article here.

Have you checked how much you could save with mortgage rates at historic lows?

According to Moneyfacts, the average fixed rate is now 3.42% and the cheapest deals are nearing 1%. It is therefore time to check your current deal, benchmark the cheapest deal at speed and cash in on the promised £1,000s of savings. Read the article here.

It is possible to remortgage a costly equity release loan – Here’s how

These loans are usually fully portable, so you can downsize by moving to another property by repaying some of the loan and keeping some still in place against the new property or take advantage of new low rates by remortgaging with another provider. Read the article here.

48% of new homeowners raised their deposit unaided – the highest number since the credit crunch

More than half of the 300,000 first-time buyers who bought a home in 2014 were helped by the bank of mum and dad and even grandparents. According to CML’s data, the proportion of unassisted buyers in the last quarter of 2014 was up from 45% a year earlier and well above the recent low of 31% recorded in the second quarter of 2009. Read the article here.

Smaller lenders are rescuing borrowers denied by big banks

The machine-only application process that only approves perfect borrowers are a deterrent to many borrowers who are looking to take advantage of some of the best lending rates in history. Fortunately there is a growing band of ‘below the radar’ mortgage lenders ready to take on the big banks by offering more flexible terms, a more personal service – and possibly lower rates and fees. Read the article here.

Increasing demand has pushed up house prices by £5,000 in February

According to Rightmove, the rise in buy-to-let investors has seen the average asking prices in England and Wales jump by 2.1% in February bringing the typical house price to £279,004. Additionally, asking prices rose in all regions in February on a yearly basis, with average national prices 6.6 per cent higher and London recording a 9.7 per cent increase to £582,483. Read the article here.

More reductions to maximum loan size

The income-loan-ratio is again being reduced, now by TSB who will no longer give borrowers more than four-and-a-half times their annual income. Previously it allowed loans of up to five times. It said the decision was in response to “changes in the market”. This is probably a reaction to similar moves by Santander and Barclays. Read the article here.

Here’s what you need to know about the Starter homes initiative targeting first-time buyers under 40

David Cameron aims to woo voters with a plan for 200,000 discounted homes by having builders create homes on brownfield land specifically for the scheme with capped prices; as the maximum cost of a qualifying home in London will be set at £450,000 and set at £250,000 outside London. Read the article here.

Lenders get tough on first-time buyers in London

First-time buyers in the capital, who, in part, drove the 2014 surge in demand by borrowing £2.9bn or 12,000 loans in the final quarter of last year, an 11% drop in value from the previous three month period and a 4% drop from the winter of 2013. Even thought the income-to-loan ratio dropped back from 3.86 to 3.84 indicating a newly cautious borrower and stricter lending criteria. Read the article here.

London property starts year in negative territory for first time since 2009

The Land Registry figures show average London house prices now rests at £179,492, while values slipped 0.2% monthly with the North West performing best. The annual rise was also 6.7%, a figure that has gradually fallen from the peak of 8.2% reached in August 2014. Read the article here.

Loan costs for equity release mortgages decline

Being asset rich but cash poor is the way that Britain’s ageing population is now being viewed and as such the market for special mortgages that allow the elderly to release cash from their homes is enjoying a resurgence, buoyed by falling interest rates, rising house price. This is evident in the more than 21,000 new customers that used “equity release” to withdraw a record £1.4bn in cash from their property wealth in 2014, a 14% rise from the previous high in 2007. Read the article here.

After seemingly unstoppable increases, London house prices slow down in January

The Land Registry reported that London house prices have decreased by 0.2% in January, bringing the annual rate of inflation in the capital down to its lowest level in a year as the gap between capital and country narrows amid doubts over mortgage rules and mansion tax. Read the article here.

Cheaper mortgages mean that you could save thousands by fixing at a lower rate and overpaying

As Yorkshire BS reveals a two-year fixed rate mortgage at 1.18%, remortgaging remains on an upward slope in January as record-low mortgage rates are continually introduced by lenders. Brian Murphy, of brokers Mortgage Advice Bureau advises that by moving from more expensive standard variable rates to cheap fixes borrowers can cut their monthly costs, but if they keep their repayments the same and overpay the loan they can make big savings over time. Read the article here.

Outright homeowners outpace mortgage holders for the first time in more than 3 decades

Not since the 1980s has outright homeowners been so much more than mortgage holders. This is due to low interest rates that have allowed borrowers to pay off their home loans quickly, combined with a squeeze on the availability of new mortgages to first-time buyers, thereby tipping the balance of ownership in England. Read the article here.

The UK’s biggest housebuilder reports a 44% jump in profits

Persimmon as the largest housebuilders in the UK sold 13,509 homes last year, up 17% on 2013 and has now disclosed a 44% increase in profits; in an environment that also saw the help-to-buy scheme propels revenues to £2.6bn. Conversely, other housebuilders like Rival Bovis Homes reported a 69% rise in annual profits to £133.5m, having sold a record 3,635 homes. Read the article here.

The evictions of Brixton social housing tenants deferred

The Guinness Partnership, one of Britain’s largest providers of affordable housing with more than 60,000 homes and 120,000 residents has agreed to allow tenants on a social housing estate in Brixton, south London to be allowed to apply for other properties it owns since the homes that they currently occupy are scheduled for renovations. Read the article here.

You can now switch your £200,000 mortgage and save up to £85,000

It will involve several weeks, lots of paperwork and phone calls but we think it is entirely worth it to access massive savings. The mortgage wars are escalating, meaning that many new deals are offering record-low rates and cut-price fees. Competition is so fierce that the cost of a typical £200,000 home loan over a five-year fix has fallen by £1,700 in the past four weeks. Read the article here.

Almost 311,500 first-time buyers took out a mortgage in 2014

According to the Council of Mortgage Lender, research showed lending to first-time buyers reached £45bn in 2014, only slightly behind the £47.2bn peak in 2007; which is a seven-year high. Read the article here.

Property asking prices shot up by more than £5,000 this month due to a chronic shortage of homes

According to a new survey, the housing shortage could become the new norm, while the average asking prices in England and Wales soared 2.1% in February and Rightmove said it saw a record 100 million visits to its website this month. Read the article here.

Lending for buy-to-let properties rose 26% in the last quarter of 2014

While total lending for house purchase rose 1.5% month-on-month in December, it was down by 5.1% year-on-year and lending for buy-to-let soared by 26% during the last three months of 2014, far outstripping the growth in lending to first-time buyers, according to figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Read the article here.

Early interest rate rise denied due to fears of a damaging “deflationary spiral”

Falling oil prices driving inflation down to 0.5% in January, impacted supporters and forced Martin Weale and Ian McCafferty to back down from calls for rate hike. Additionally, Mark Carney was forced to write a letter to George Osborne explaining why the Bank had allowed inflation to drop to more than 1 percentage point below the Bank’s 2% target. Read the article here.

It is now possible for first-timers and existing borrowers to win in the mortgage price war

The mortgage price war is heating up and mortgage rates are expected to go even lower. Just last week more than two dozen mortgage deals were set at or below a record low of just 1.5 per cent and this week is set to see even cheaper fixed rates with several set to break through the 1 per cent floor. Read the article here.

With the Bank of England expecting deflation in coming months speculations heighten for an eventual 0% base rate

If inflation doesn’t return, governor Mark Carney promised to act by reviving its quantitative easing operation, mothballed since July 2012, or by cutting rates. Meaning that the 730,000 borrowers on Nationwide’s “base mortgage rate” (BMR) – anyone who took a special rate deal from the building society before 2009 – should benefit. Read the article here.

Small deposit buyers offered long-term security with 10-year fixed rate mortgages

TSB has a launched a product for customers who have only 5% of the purchase price to put down as a deposit. Theses borrowers will be able to lock in to a rate of 5.69% until 2025 at a loan to value of up to 95% of their property’s price but only at the 10-year fix level. Read the article here.

The next six months may be best to grab a cheap fixed rate

According to Bank of England figures, now 25 Mortgage pricing has fallen so low that they are less than best easy access saving rate of 1.5%. For instance, HSBC recently took the lowest two-year fixed rate down to just 1.19 per cent, while Chelsea Building Society now offers a five-year fixed rate at just 2.19 per cent. Read the article here.

Young home buyers are now being restricted by the amount that they can borrow

On Friday Santander will reduce its lending limit from five times to four-and-a-half times a first-time buyers’ salary; meaning that a young worker who earns £40,000 will see the maximum they can borrow reduced from £200,000 to £180,000, thereby putting home ownership out of reach for many. Read the article here.

Want to buy a second home and pay no capital gains tax – Here’s how

Many parents would like to buy a second home for their adult children but find CGT a major concern. However, using a trust is a loophole that provides a completely legitimate way to buy another property and subsequently dispose of it without having to pay any CGT while having your full CGT exemption on your own home unaffected. Read the article here.

House prices edged up 2% in January

The most recent Halifax property survey report shows that house prices increased by £3,800 reaching an average price of £193,130; the biggest increase since 2009. Halifax also predicts that prices will increase further in a range of three to five per cent this year, compared with eight per cent last year. Read the article here.

A mortgage rate war is underway, with rates and fees tumbling at Britain’s biggest banks

Fierce competition among lenders has seen the cost of a typical home loan fall by £1,700 in just one month. For instance the latest round of cuts, made on Friday by First Direct, allows borrowers to lock into a 2.89 per cent rate for a decade; a new record low for that period. Read the article here.

Hear how one person bought a two-bed flat for £32,750 in 1985 and sold the same home of 20 years for £660,000 in 2014

It has been said that people who started buying property in the 1970s and 1980s in London and the south-east have had an invisible enchanted cloak billowing around them, making them money; yet the next generation is not so lucky as the property market has changed drastically over the years. Read the article here.

More and more pensioners are releasing equity from their homes to pay off debts

With mounting credit card bills and lapsing mortgages retirees are turning to home equity as indebtedness in retirement remains a big issue, especially among homeowners who took out endowments to repay loans. Such policies continue to disappoint on maturity, leaving planholders with a mortgage shortfall to plug. Read the article here.

The new Government mortgage has taken six years off the first-time buyer age of 37

A government initiative aimed at getting first-time buyers on the property ladder has shaved six years off the age at which people can afford their first home and the average salary of home buyers using the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee fell by 12pc over the past year from £31,270 to £27,957. Read the article here.

UK house prices were up 2% in January

Halifax reports unexpected increase in January of 2% making the average house price £193,130; this is after a modest 1.1% increase in December, a 0.5% increase in November and a price fall of 0.4% in October. Read the article here.

Your pound now goes 30pc further in some countries when buying property

The international value of your money and the size of a country’s debts should be in the decision-making process when buying property abroad; so that means that Germany and France are good candidates, as markets have been kind to the pound of late and unpleasant to the euro, British buyers are excitedly working out how far their pounds will now stretch. Read the article here.

This past week Ireland introduced hard-line mortgage lending restrictions

So that they don’t repeat the boom-and-bust cycle, Irish regulators are demanding that borrowers put down a minimum 20% deposit and take out loans of no more than 3.5 times their income. Buy-to-let landlords have even tougher rules, and are now forced to put down deposits of at least 30%. Read the article here.

Landlords suffer lost in latest round of tracker mortgage fight

The landlords fighting West Bromwich Building Society over a change in their mortgage terms made in December 2013 which severely affects millions of borrowers. The move affects professional landlords with three or more properties and saw them complaining about the rise which came despite Bank of England base rate remaining glued at 0.5 per cent since March 2009. Read the article here.

More than 476,000 people with self-cert loans could be unable to remortgage or move

Brokers estimate that around 5pc of all borrowers, more than 476,000 people, have a self-cert loan because the majority could not prove their income and so failed to meet lenders’ tough new affordability criteria. Read the article here.

The use of the bank of mum and dad has skyrocketed

According to a Lloyds Bank savings report parents pay £13,281 on average to fund their children’s first home adding up to a collective £8billion in deposits each year and with house prices having increased by 26 per cent since early 2009, and 68 per cent in London, this is not surprising news as the nationwide average house price reaches £188,559. Read the article here.

The typical buyer will need to find £71k to buy a home in the UK

Mortgage brokers are reporting that stricter lending criteria have helped to increase the property deposits to 30.7% of the value or £71,078, the highest level since October 2013; although the stamp duty reforms are also encouraging buyers to put down more. Read the article here.

You may have to save for more than a decade to buy your first home in Britain

According to research from the housing charity Shelter, with rising house prices, low-earnings growth and the high cost of living; the average first-time home buyer will need to save up for more than six-and-a-half years to raise the 20% deposit needed to afford a home. Read the article here.

Build-to-let could be the development that is going to change the face of property ownership in Britain

With Prudential injecting £1bn into the hard-pressed middle-income market and building 152 flats in London’s north Acton for rent; this may just be the lifeline that renters need. Read the article here.

A slowdown in the growth of house prices is more ‘healthy’ for the market

One of the country’s leading builders has said it had a record order book for the coming year, but was expecting to see ‘more balanced market conditions’ yet The Centre for Economics and Business Research expects prices to fall during 2015 following a period of rampant growth. Read the article here.

Britain’s divisive, winner-takes-all property market image needs to stop

The obnoxious housebuilder’s ad for London penthouses perfectly encapsulates the UK housing crisis and with prices for apartments at One Blackfriars, the tower block being marketed by Berkeley, ranging up to £23m, it’s no wonder that buying a home can seem like an impossible dream. Read the article here.

Many are now moving without selling with let-to-buy by renting out their home and using the cash to buy a new property

Let-to-buy means that they can own two homes rather than one and mortgage interest payments on the loan for the home they are letting out is offset against rent to cut their income tax bill with the extra tax break. Read the article here.

House prices for ‘second steppers’ are lower than 10 years ago; even in London

30-something homeowners poised to move into their second home can afford a detached property for the first time, following the housing market recovery and despite sharp falls in property prices following the banking crisis, the IMF believes they are still too high and could drop by a further 10-15pc relative to Britons’ salaries. Read the article here.

Housing advert boosts ‘no social housing’ for luxury London flat

Property investors in Hong Kong are being enticed by claims of no social housing for luxury apartments in one of London’s most deprived areas; even though large private developments are required to allocate a percentage of overall units for social housing, the number of social homes is routinely being reduced or replaced. Read the article here.

House prices stagnate at £271k: £3k below the summer peak of £274k

The Office for National Statistics reports that property prices were up just 0.2 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis between October and November 2014, keeping the average home to £271,000, while London property values also came down £13k from their August peak. Read the article here.

Ten-year mortgages costing under 3% are tempting some to borrow and then invest

With Barclays offering such appealing fixed low rates for 10 years all you’d need to clear a profit is a return higher than 2.99pc. This trick was commonly practised in the early part of the century by credit card borrowers, and was known as “stoozing”. Read the article here.

Students can now obtain a 100% mortgage from reputable building societies

If you have a guarantor who has at least £40,000 in equity then even as a student you can qualify for a 100% £183,000 mortgage, to be repaid on an interest-only basis. Read the article here.

Mortgage porting woes continue to plague UK borrowers

While holders of cheap tracker mortgages are being targeted even borrowers who want to downsize and reduce their debt are being told, nonsensically, that they “can’t afford to” and must meet full affordability requirements. Read the article here.

The culture of home insurance rip-off needs to end

Despite Co-ops claiming to have generously applied a 40% ‘no claims discount’ to its renewal quotes, the so-called ‘ethical’ bank also repays loyal customers with premiums which are £128 more than those quoted for new customers. Read the article here.

Properties in London now costs nine times the average annual income for first-time buyers

The recent research conducted by Nationwide has found that across the UK as a whole first-timers have to pay five times their annual income to buy a home and mortgage payments account for 34% of take-home pay. Read the article here.

Watch out for these housing issues in 2015

With unrest among young people, unaffordable homes and a general election, there will be a bitter battle over rent control and the housing policy could win the youth vote; not to mention that these issues will dominate the housing headlines this year. Read the article here.

Competitive mortgages means that you can fix below 3% for the first time until 2025

For the next 10 years you could be enjoying the spoils of the new mortgage wars as Barclays will cut their rate on a 10-year mortgage deal from 3.45% to 2.99%; the lowest ever fixed rate. Read the article here.

Even though house prices increased by 7.8% in 2014, Halifax predicts a much slower gain rate in 2015

As property prices hit £188,858 in December, the average price of homes added more than £14k in value over the year yet due to slowing month-by-month property inflation that figure is expected to be halved in 2015. Read the article here.

It’s time to get your mortgage, there may never be a better time

With major lenders like Santander cutting their five-year fixed rates by more than half a percentage point and introducing eye-catchingly low ten-year fixes from just 3.44 per cent, 2015 has started as a true buyer’s market. Read the article here.

First-time buyers increased by 22% to 326,500 in 2014

Halifax reports that the help-to-buy scheme instituted by the government has helped large numbers of first-time buyers to get onto the property ladder, even though the average cost of a home bought by a first-time buyer rose 9% to £171,870 compared with a year ago. Read the article here.

CEBR predicts that at the minimum, mortgage payments could increase by £81

A report compiled by Barclays Mortgages and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) indicates that 61% of homeowners surveyed have no idea when increase rates are likely to increase; even though mortgage payments could increase by as much as £119 annually by the end of 2015. Read the article here.

One in nine fear they will be unable to meet January’s rent or mortgage payments

With 60% of families struggling to balance their budgets after Christmas, an interest rate rise will see millions more swamped by their mortgage or rent costs. Read the article here.

Banks are denying wealthy buyers the opportunity to port their loans

Even with borrowers who are considered well-to-do, banks like HSBC are not approving transfers or ‘porting’ of their mortgage so that they can move to new homes. Read the article here.

Here are 6 reasons to consider before entering the property market in 2015

It will be a buyers’ market until early summer, estate agents may be changing how they advertise homes, transport improvement schemes will transform local markets, there’s a new property tax being introduced in Scotland, interest rates may increase and a Mansion tax would transform the high-end market. Read the article here.

David Cameron approves 20% discount for first-time buyers to get ‘starter homes’

As part of a move to get more people on to the property ladder the Prime Minister plans to allow first-time buyers to register for the Starter Home initiative beginning January. Read the article here.

Moving away from London up by 50% as property prices increase

According to Johnny Morris, estate agent Hamptons’ head of research, “as the gap between house prices in London and the rest of the country has widened to record highs, of £282,000, and expectations of future house-price growth have moderated, many Londoners are now choosing to cash in and move out of the capital.” Read the article here.

House prices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton, Bristol and Birmingham have increased at a faster pace than London in the last quarter

London house prices grew 0.5%, while Edinburgh’s jumped 1.8% and Cambridge and Aberdeen have seen house price declines of 0.2% and 0.4%. Read the article here.

British buyers continue to scoop up properties in France as rates fall

It is now €30,000 cheaper to buy in France as rates hit new low and the best rate on a 20-year fixed mortgage has fallen to just 3.1%. Even better, only a 20% deposit is needed to buy real estate on the Normandy coast. Read the article here.

Take the 2014 money quiz

Want to test your knowledge of best performing investments, house price hotspots and where taxes are spent, reaching overhauls of Isas, pensions and stamp duty? Then here is the ultimate 2014 money quiz. Take the quiz here.

Unsecured lending at six-year high

According to figures from the British Bankers’ Association, mortgage approvals dropped by a fifth in just one year as ‘sharp chill’ shudders through the housing market; however this could be temporary as the new stamp duty system regulations are set to take effect. Read the article here.

2014 was the year of the London housing saga

London and the rest of the country seemed to be on completely different continents in 2014 and even recorded annual house price growth of more than 20%. With small flats that cost £100s a month to rent and tiny homes going for surprising sums, the property market in the capital was one bumpy ride. Read the article here.

House prices in London declined by 1.9% in November

Compared with the rest of the UK and the national price increase of 0.6%, property prices in London landed below the average £500,000 mark in November. Especially as south-west London reported a massive 14% decline over the past year. Read the article here.

TSB bank has launched a range of 10-year loans with limited early repayment fees

It is the norm to avoid long-term mortgages in case you want to move house, refinance or pay the loan off early. TSB has addressed this issue and now allows borrowers to acquire a 10-year Fix and Flex mortgage with a rate of 3.44pc that can be broken after 5 years. Read the article here.

Happy Hart in Hampshire has been voted the area with the best quality of life in the UK

The district of Hart in Hampshire scored highly on health, earnings, education, employment and crime in the the survey of the 50 best places to live in the UK. The South East of England dominated the survey with Elmbridge in Surrey coming in second. Watch the video here.

More than three in five workers earns less than the average UK house price

Research shows that the average property has added nearly £30,000 in value over the past 12 months, more than the annual wage of a typical British worker and in London, prices gained more value than the annual wage of a qualified doctor. Read the article here.

If Bank Rate or wholesale funding conditions don’t change, mortgage rates are also unlikely to rise in 2015: Here’s why

With Increased regulation, low inflation and modest wage growth, most lenders are keen to attract new borrowers and these conditions may even reduce rates further because of the competition. Read the article here.

Fixed rate mortgages are sought after by the wealthy

Even though almost 85pc of borrowers are fixing their rate the rich among us are still going after variable loans; mainly because variable rates are cheaper and the wealthy are happy to take a punt on interest rates because they can afford to be wrong. Read the article here.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders say that gross mortgage lending came down by 9% in October

The mortgage lending levels have now slowed to normal healthy levels with reported October’s figure at £16.9bn, the lowest level since April and matches the sum advanced in November 2013. Read the article here.

London property market slow down

With house prices experiencing the biggest monthly drop ever of 3.3% and £30k taking the average property price to £258,424, sellers across the UK make biggest ever cuts to tempt in buyers; this could mean the end of the London property boom. Read the article here.

Grosvenor Crescent: the most expensive address in Britain

House prices has risen by 18% in a year on the London street where house prices average £16.9m. In May 2013, a house there sold for £15.7m, and a three-bedroom flat is on the market for £11.75m. Property prices rose rapidly in the capital at the start of this year, and the cost of homes on the most desirable streets has risen sharply. Read the article here.

Low deposit mortgages make owning your own home that much easier

With as little as a 5% deposit you too can get on the property ladder as the number of low deposit mortgages have tripled this year. However there is a catch as the average two-year fixed rate for low deposit buyers was 5.11% a year ago and is now at 5.22%. Read the article here.

Here are nine tips on how to own your own home before 30

Twenty-somethings need all the help they can get to own a home. Some valuable tips include; growing your money faster on the stock market, moving back home with parents, not losing your rental deposits, getting a good credit rating, becoming a property guardian, buying with a friend or doing shared ownership, building your own home, buying a house boat and looking outside your ideal area. Watch the video here.

Lending for buy-to-let at its highest since 2008

The Bank of England has indicated that buy-to-let lending jumped from £5.9bn in the third quarter of 2013 to £8bn in the corresponding period this year – the highest quarterly amount since the crash of 2008. This buy-to-let rush contributed to the quarterly rise of 0.5pc in all residential loans. Read the article here.

Ireland is the country with the fastest growing house prices in the world

With average prices up 15% in a year the country is top of an influential global house price index, ahead of Dubai and the UK. Especially since it has only been six years after the onset of a crash that wiped more than 50% from its property market values. Read the article here.

Check out these market towns for best value homes

According to a Lloyds Bank survey, market town house prices can be two-and-a-half times those in the surrounding county, while even the average market town home carries a premium of £24,766 or 12 per cent. For instance, Beaconsfield is 156% more expensive than the average Buckinghamshire home. Read the article here.

A first time buyer could save £2,000 due to stamp duty reforms

Reduced stamp duty on homes mean that a property priced at £12,000, would mean paying 3% of the property price; however the new reforms allow buyers to pay 2.5%, or £10,000 on the total purchase price. Read the article here.

House prices are expected to rise following the overhaul of stamp duty

Due to Chancellor George Osborne’s new stamp duty reductions, another rise in property valuations is expected, as well as an increase in demand for properties under £937,000, as buyers of those houses now pay less stamp duty. Read the article here.

London council proposes jail time for homeowners who leave properties empty in Islington

According to the 2011 census, Islington is the most densely populated local authority area in the UK and 30% of homes built in last six years have nobody on the electoral register. These property investors often leave homes empty just to make money from property price increases. Read the article here.

Osborne kills off hated slab system with stamp duty bills cut and promises huge savings to those paying under £937,000

Just like income tax, stamp duty will now be levied progressively and new bands step up to highest level of 12% above £1.5million. Previously buyers paid the percentage above thresholds on the entire purchase price, creating a situation where tax bills rocketed from £2,500 to at least £7,500 when buying a home costing more than £250,000; now those buying a £300,000 home will see a £4,000 cut from stamp duty bill. Read the article here.

Report predicts house prices in areas near stations will rise by 20-25%

Data show values in Brentwood and Shenfield over the past year have already risen 13% as the Crossrail effect takes hold, boosting house prices along the route four years before launch. The Property Impact report predicts house prices in areas that have access to Crossrail will rise by 20 per cent in suburban locations and by 25 per cent in central London. Read the article here.

First-time buyers given a deposit on new TV show, but there’s a catch

Soaring house prices and a short-age of affordable properties, particularly in London and the South East where many young professionals move for work, have pushed the average first-time buyer deposit to £30,000. Therefore, buying a first home has become a pipe dream for a whole generation of 20-somethings who are struggling to pull together the massive deposits needed in today’s market. Read the article here.

The development at Battersea power station ‘is creating a market of its own’

London development continues to surprise, where a studio flat in Battersea power station that sold for close to £1m in the spring is about to go back on the market with a price tag of up to £1.5m. Prices for studios started from £800,000, while one-bed flats cost £1m or more and four-bed homes carried price tags of £4m or more. Construction has not yet started and they are due to be completed in late 2018. Read the article here.

22% of buyers in Brighton have been gazumped

Brighton is the worst area in Britain for gazumping; the practice where a bid is accepted only for the seller to drop the buyer when someone else offers more at the last minute. Read the article here.

Remortgages have slumped by more than a fifth over the past year

According to the provider Legal Marketing Services, despite competitive rates, lenders handed out 23,505 loans for remortgaging in October, down 15 per cent from September and 21 per cent lower than in the same month a year earlier. Read the article here.

Be wary of the 1.39pc ‘best-buy’ mortgage

A £100,000 loan would cost £11,425 through First Direct’s 1.39pc deal over two years. Even for a £1m loan, the First Direct deal would cost £96,699 over two years, which is £77 more expensive than Yorkshire Building Society’s 1.47pc fix with a £975 fee. Read the article here.

New mortgage approvals hit a 17-month low amid high prices

UK housing market cools because of tougher rules for getting mortgages and the BBA said that new mortgage approvals hit a 17-month low of 37,076 in October. That total was down nearly a quarter from January’s 76-month high of 48,649. It was also down 16% year on year. Read the article here.

Eliminating the estate agent could save you £15,000

Trying to move up the property ladder as a second-stepper means encountering various challenges for instance research indicates that there are now 13 towns and cities where you have to pay at least 60 per cent more to jump from a typical one or two-bedroom flat to a typical terraced or semi-detached house. Read the article here.

Your 30s is fast becoming too old to get a mortgage

Borrowers in their late thirties and early forties are having a hard time getting mortgages as the rules by the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) designed to curb risky lending are not clear on lending into retirement. Read the article here.

Halifax expects UK house prices to rise by a ‘more moderate’ 3%-5% next year

The impending general election will likely see demand for houses decreasing, thereby creating balance in the supply of properties. Britain’s biggest mortgage lender also expects UK property prices to end around 8% this year and only increase by 3% to 5% in 2015. Read the article here.

Steep fall in mortgage costs could have borrowers saving £2,000-a-year

Looking to renew a five-year fixed mortgage? You could save more than £200 a month. Due to sharp declines in interest rates charged since November 2009, when the average five-year rate stood at 6.2 per cent mortgage. Moneyfacts analysts indicate that the rates are currently 3.92 per cent – more than a third lower. Read the article here.

The average lifespan is not enough to pay off a mortgage

With official figures showing about 400,000 over-65s still with mortgages, a figure that is growing by about 10% per year. These over-65s are usually facing inadequate pensions and looming care bills with no way to pay off their mortgages. Read the article here.

Increased public sector housebuilding boosts construction industry

The Housing Associations reports the biggest monthly jump in building activity since 1997 with a 1.8% increase in September’s output. The Office for National Statistics said a strong flow of housebuilding over the last year was single biggest factor in revitalising the sector, after a 22.3% increase in activity since September 2013. Read the article here.

Winter buyers sought after with falling property prices

Rightmove says high prices and new mortgage lending rules have put a temporary brake on the ‘mini-boom’. Nevertheless, figures from the property website showed that asking prices for homes coming onto the market in November were down 1.7% on October, which shaves £4,542 off the average property price bringing it to £267,127, is the smallest in five years. Read the article here.

A lot of borrowers who apply to port their loan to a new house are being rejected

Porting comprises of a new application and credit check and as such many borrowers do not meet the new affordability rules put in place in April, even when they are trying to downsize and reduce their debt; this has led the City regulator and financial ombudsman to start getting tough on those lenders who unfairly reject borrowers’ requests to transfer their mortgage. Read the article here.

Mortgages reach highest level since 2007

The Council of Mortgage Lenders has indicated that the third quarter of the year saw Lenders’ figures reporting 188,000 mortgages worth £32.4bn advanced from July to September which is the highest totals since the final three months of 2007. Read the article here.

First-time buyers have declined by three per cent in September

With the ever widening gap between wealthier and regular borrowers, first-time buyers face record £2,800 mortgage rate penalty for putting down smaller deposits. Research indicates that someone with a 35 per cent deposit obtained an average two-year mortgage rate of 2.46 per cent. By contrast, someone with a five per cent deposit – which is common among first-time buyers – was charged 5.27 per cent on average. On a loan of £150,000, the difference between the two rates was £231 a month, adding £2,772 a year to mortgage bills. Read the article here.

Without the London property market, house prices would be the same as they were in 2004

While the monthly Land Registry figures stand at £177,299 for average property value; removing London from the equation reduces that figure to only £133,538. This is very much on par with the £133,126 level recorded in July 2004. Read the