Archive

A group of mortgage advisers has proposed a range of reforms to reduce barriers to home ownership for first time buyers. The...

Property professionals and MPs were left wanting more after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s much-anticipated housing announcements yesterday. Johnson yesterday promised a review...

Boris Johnson has promised a review of the mortgage market and housing benefit rules to help more people to get on...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to unveil a flagship policy today to help more people onto the property ladder. It is...

The government is being urged to expand and make the Treasury’s mortgage guarantee scheme permanent and compulsory on home loans above...

Increasingly cautious mortgage lending could dampen the property market and cause more sales to fall-through, it has been warned. Recent house price...

Mortgage search platform Twenty7Tec is predicting there could be one million searches for home loans this month. The technology company, which lets...

It’s not an easy time for many renters (and homeowners). The cost of living is going up across the board for...

The LSL Property Services group - which is increasingly focussing activities in the mortgage and personal finance world - has issued...

There’s been a marked reduction in mortgage product availability for a second consecutive month.  Independent mortgage market monitor Moneyfacts says there are...

After a long period of improvement in the level of product choice for borrowers, February has seen mortgage availability fall for the...

Mortgage lenders serving the housing market are set for a quieter 2022 after the unprecedented levels of activity seen in 2021,...

Lenders’ umbrella group UK Finance has given its housing and mortgage market forecasts for 2022 and 2023 together, plus a year-end report for 2021. It estimates...

Figures from the Building Societies Association show continued momentum in the housing market, with gross lending by building societies up 22...

The value of mortgage lending hit a record high in the final months of the stamp duty holiday. Figures from the Bank...

House prices in Wales - where the equivalent of the stamp duty holiday has fully ended - rose to a new...

The signs are that even with the stamp duty holiday tapering to a close at the end of the summer, the...

The Halifax is reporting a 0.5 per cent monthly drop in house prices, plus a fall in the annual rate from...

Veteran agent and property consultant Dominic Grace, who recently left Savills after 37 years, is to take up a new role...

Who are you and what does it say on your business card? Matt Ratliff, Chief Technology Officer of Sort Group. How has your...

There are now more mortgage products available than at any time since the start of the pandemic in March 2021. Data from...

In recent years, the property market has been taking steps to become more digital – with HM Land Registry leading the...

Britain’s second largest estate agency has outlined radical new plans to shift direction, making financial services and not sales or rentals...

The Property Franchise Group and LSL Property Services are linking up mortgage and related activity. This agreement means that LSL will be...

LSL Property Services is to set up a mortgage brokerage called Pivotal Growth. The new brokerage - set up with Pollen Street...

For many, the funeral of HRH Prince Philip will be a solemn affair, while for some it will also be a...

The latest Moneyfacts monitor of the mortgage market suggests a significant number of new 95 per cent products - even without the...

First time buyers with just a 10 per cent deposit - for long almost excluded from the mortgage market - now...

LSL, owner of Reeds Rains and Your Move, is boosting its financial services sector through a £2.4m acquisition. It’s snapped up Mortgage...

There’s now more choice in the mortgage market than at any time since last March, before the pandemic reached a peak. The...

A mortgage technology platform has released figures suggesting the housing market remains strong, with high numbers of searches by buyers for...

The only certainty at the moment is ongoing uncertainty. It’s something we’ve got used to in 2020, but it’s still not...

With access to finance being such a hot topic at the moment, more and more estate agents are turning to commercial...

Mortgage approvals - a key indicator of short-term activity in the housing market - beat expectations in June according to Bank...

What do General Electric, IBM, Microsoft, and WhatsApp have in common? Yes, they are American companies that boasted revenues of $50...

A prominent tax specialist has suggested that stamp duty cuts would not help improve the housing market, despite many agents suggesting...

All my recent Natters have been focused on one particular topic, the coronavirus crisis, for obvious reasons. But there has been...

The Bank of Ireland UK is the latest mortgage lender to resume physical valuations of properties in England, subject of course...

A daily monitor of mortgage market activity has reported “significant volumes” of business across the sector, even over the weekend. Mortgage technology...

I won't be the first or last person to say that society and the property industry in which we operate is...

The agency behind a poll showing one in six buyers putting plans on hold because of Coronavirus is warning that if...

The Financial Conduct Authority has issued a shock warning that mortgage borrowers who purchased properties through the Help To Buy scheme...

“Give me 100 leads and I will make five-times more good appointments than any AI you put me up against,” stated...

Reapit has joined a consortium attempting to make the long-anticipated end-to-end digital home buying process a reality. It’s joined the IPN Consortium,...

A new analysis from a financial services trade body shows that gross mortgage lending is expected to rise significantly in the...

First time buyers reached an estimated 353,436 in 2019, the highest level since 2007. This is the fifth time in six years...

Yes, believe it or not, we’ve nearly reached the end of a whole decade. And what an eventful decade it’s been. We’ve...

Specialist providers catering for the over-50s has welcomed a move by high-end estate agency Knight Frank to move into equity release. Commenting...

Theresa May arrived in Downing Street some three years ago - but her premiership has not been a smooth ride. As she...

On the same day as one of the most optimistic Rightmove market snapshots of recent months, the latest mortgage monitor from...

Mortgage brokers are claiming that “a big number” of buyers are being cajoled into using estate agents’ in-house brokers. The Financial Conduct...

A review of the housing market at present, particularly when it comes to purchase transactions, might not necessarily feel overly positive.  The...

While even agents of the calibre of Savills struggle in today’s market - see the agency’s figures here - it’s a...

The chief executive of online agency HouseSimple says “sellers need to be prepared and willing to lower their expectations” in the current...

A downbeat report from property investment specialist London Central Portfolio says “there are very few causes for optimism in the domestic...

Rightmove says the housing market is now into a ‘summer sale’ as newly-marketed property shows an average asking price fall of...

The mortgage industry may be throwing agents and the housing market something of a lifeline - it’s been revealed that 40...

The latest data from Rightmove indicates that the average national asking price has reached another all-time high of £308,075 following a...

Hello and welcome to this week’s Property Jobs Today, our weekly feature on who’s moving where throughout our industry. And it’s...

Trussle, which describes itself as the UK’s first online mortgage broker, has won £13.6m in financing from international investors led by...

A new survey suggests that despite many lenders increasing their rates, most mainstream mortgages are down compared to the start of...

Figures just released assessing February’s mortgage borrowing show that approvals are 1.25 per cent lower than in January, and are down...

The costs of the majority of mainstream mortgages increased in the final three months of last year.  The news comes from mortgage...

Mortgage Advice Bureau has batted off the flat housing market by reporting good figures for 2017. Revenue for the year increased by...

More price falls have been recorded across areas of prime London according to Savills.  The pattern is not uniform - the agency...

Mortgage approvals are well above last year's levels despite concerns about the health of the housing market.  There were 66,185 mortgage applications...

New figures from UK Finance, the umbrella body for finance houses, show gross mortgage lending in September rose to £21.4 billion...

Respected mortgage market monitor Moneyfacts says that the costs of some mortgages are already rising in the expectation of a base...

The housing market may be a little sticky in the middle of summer right now, but there’s certainly no shortage of...

As the mainstream mortgage market braces itself for yet another clampdown on buy-to-let lending, a growing number of property investors are...

Countrywide has revealed a massive plunge in its profits for the first six months of 2017.   Pre-tax profit for the six months...

The housing market may appear stagnant but one of the leading monitors of the mortgage market says many rates for borrowers...

The political ebb and flow continues - seemingly with all the subtlety of a Boris Johnson rugby tackle on a 10-year...

The Council of Mortgage Lenders’s buy to let forecast for 2017 and 2018 has been revised down from previous expectations at...

Just 27% of property valuations in May were requested by prospective home sellers, according to the latest data from Connells Survey...

The overall mortgage market has grown in the past month according to e.surv - bringing to an end months of decline...

The proportion of mortgage products available for investor buyers operating through limited companies has risen by over 50 per cent in...

There are more mortgage products available to buyers now than at any time since 2008 according to respected finance monitor service...

A building society claims that in the past three years alone no fewer than 1.2m buyers have given up on house...

In recent years the mortgage industry has gone through some testing times. Recession and regulation have led to more stringent lending...

Mortgage brokers say they are encountering fewer difficulties sourcing products now than at any time for three years.  Research from the Intermediary...

Buyers with deposits of 15 per cent or less of the purchase price now make up more than a fifth of...

The number and range of mortgages being offered in the UK has almost returned to its pre-credit crunch level. That’s the view...

It's been revealed that Countrywide has lost 200 branches in its reorganisation - that's around 20 per cent of its branch...

The rapid growth in popularity of buy-to-let in recent years, fuelled in part by the failings of the pensions industry, has...

The rental market has had to face a raft of changes over the past year, including the introduction of the 3% stamp...

A post-Christmas treat this week, as I carry out a Q & A with one of the leading figures in property,...

Around six in 10 estate agents say their experience shows that mortgage lending restrictions targeting customers aged 55 or over are...

Brexit and wider economic uncertainties worsened by changes to property taxation have forced the Council of Mortgage Lenders to cut its...

Carpe diem, seize the day – whatever you call it, it’s something all of us in the property industry should be looking...

The long-awaited Redfern Review has recommended that improved access to mortgage finance and improved income levels for first time buyers are...

We are now less than a month away from Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Statement to the nation, depending of course on...

Fears raised over the UK housing market in the wake of the Brexit vote have so far proved to be ‘wide...

Those working within the UK housing market would have felt considerable worry about the immediate impact of the vote to leave...

There has been a spur in activity in the mortgage market since the Bank of England base rate dropped to 0.25...

An investment report from credit ratings agency Moody’s suggests it is concerned about the effects of Brexit on the housing market,...

  The Bank of England has, as expected, cut its base rate to 0.25 per cent after a record seven years at...

As promised, this week’s Natter is dedicated to a question and answer session with Peter Brodnicki, the man who has been...

As I sit and write this piece, even with the FTSE 100 back up and sterling having recovered some of its...

One estate agency leader - you’d all recognise his name - described the victory of the Leave camp in the referendum...

While buy-to-let lenders brace themselves for further interventions as part of proposals currently being drawn up by the Prudential Regulation Authority...

Conveyancing transactions hit a post-recession high during the first quarter of 2016, according to new figures. Search provider Search Acumen's analysis of...

Conveyancing firm My Home Move has come up with an interesting view of how the housing market could look if -...

The Financial Conduct Authority is to encourage lenders to give would-be buyers more choice in the mortgages available. In the Responsible Lending...

Countrywide has taken another step into the residential development mortgage market by acquiring Mortgage Bureau, which works with national house builders as...

An academic study claims that increasing the supply of new-build properties - widely thought to be the favoured solution to the...

More than one in four sales across the UK fell through last year, claims a quick-sale company. Quick Move Now claims a...

A typical 50-day wait for a buyer to receive a mortgage offer “increases the risk that sales will collapse and puts...

In many respects 2015 has been a good year. Despite global challenges, we have seen a marked improvement in the UK...

An estate agency claims there is a “contagion” spreading across the prime London housing market with sales reduced drastically thanks to...

In a new sign that the housing market is strengthening, mortgage lending increased in August by the largest amount since 2008. Data...

The Financial Conduct Authority is remaining tight-lipped as to whether its newly-announced assessment of MMR will lead to easier access to...

The Financial Conduct Authority says it is to hold a review of the mortgage market after last year’s controversial MMR to...

Conveyancing activity broke records between April and June 2015, according to analysis of Land Registry data by search provider Search Acumen.  Total...

The number of valuations has dropped over the summer according to figures from Connells.  Although valuation volumes for July are significantly up...

When Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, recently announced that interest rates would have to start to rise sooner...

The average salary of buyers seeking a mortgage fell to a near-four year low in June according to the Mortgage Advice...

Consider the scene. It is July 8th and new Chancellor, Ed Balls, stands at the Dispatch Box giving his first Budget...

Lending for house buying is still down compared to this time last year but there are signs that the market is...

In case we didn’t learn the lesson last time around, we appear to be on the brink of a refresher course...

Wednesday’s budget proved a grim viewing for those who have worked in the rental sector for some time and watched the...

Shepherd Direct, the UK operator of Century 21 estate agency franchises, has bought a minority stake in Stonebridge Group, the mortgage...

The total number of mortgage products available reached a post-recession high of 13,539 in April.  The latest National Mortgage Index from Mortgage...

Two thirds of estate agents report decrease in buyers following the Mortgage Market Review, says the National Association of Estate Agents. Mark...

With pension reform, council licensing changes and a General Election on the horizon, many are anticipating a boom in the buy-to-let...