In a telling sign of the times, a high street pawnbroker has announced plans to open 50 new shops this year, creating 300 new jobs. The Money Shop said it has been having its busiest January ever, with rising demand for its services...

Three people involved in a buy-to-let scam, including a mortgage adviser chasing targets, have been sentenced. Brothers Billy Blue Ingham and Bobbie Jo Ingham obtained loans for £700,000 in order to buy properties in Salford, Greater Manchester...

First-time buying was the most sought after area of mortgage advice throughout 2011 on its ‘find a mortgage adviser’ search, the website ‘unbiased’ has reported...

Clydesdale Bank has become the latest lender to improve its buy-to-let criteria and has upped its loan to value on buy-to-let products from 75% to 80%...

The number of mortgage approvals for house purchase in December by high street banks was officially 36,171. This seasonally adjusted figure, used in its headline report by the British Bankers Association,  showed a slight increase on November, but the unadjusted figure told a very different story – with just 24,285 house purchase approvals...

Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks has revealed that 30 is the average age for those taking out one of its first-time buyer mortgages.   The banks remain one of the few lenders still offering 95% mortgages to first-time buyers...

The future boss of the new Financial Conduct Authority has told banks that there will have to be a cultural change to avoid the failings that the FSA has had to deal with over the last few years...

Families who sold their properties in good faith to a sale and rent-back firm, only to find themselves caught up in what could be the UK’s biggest ever mortgage scam, face the prospect of losing their homes...