Editor's Blogs
In recent weeks we have had confirmation from the Chancellor that the Funding for Lending scheme (FLS) is to be extended to 2015...
Draft legislation regarding changes to the current capital gains tax regime and the introduction of new rules for an annual charge on £2m-plus properties held in certain ownership structures is due to be published next week on December 11...
Another new year, another new chapter in the life of the bridging market. I always look forward to the Christmas and New Year break – a chance to spend more time with the family and a chance to take a step or two back and look at what the new year might bring...
The Budget, as is generally the case, has been met with mixed reaction depending on where one sits on the political divide...
Mutuals are beating banks for mortgage lending. They are not only lending more, offering better rates and have better public standing than banks, but they are supporting first-time buyers in a way their rivals are not and driving vital improvements in the housing market as a result...
Directly authorised intermediaries have nothing to fear regarding the implementation of the Mortgage Market Review in April 2014...
Solicitors! Don’t you just love ’em? I know that bridging lenders are primarily reliant on the property for the repayment of the loan, and that the legal process around the completion of the loan is important, but I do wonder if my lawyer friends don’t go miles over the top in what they do...
I wonder how much attention brokers actually pay to all the commentary and ‘expert analysis’ that appear in the mortgage and financial trade press...
There is a lot of talk of lenders needing to ‘know their brokers’, but the real issue is how well do advisers know their clients? It is absolutely essential for an adviser to know their client well and have all the information to hand, before they start carrying out a decision in principle (DIP), an application in principle or a full mortgage application...
I know bridging is only a small proportion of the total market for secured lending, but I have been beginning to wonder whether we should be concerned about the way that the supply of bridging loans is expanding...
“ONS PUTS HOUSE PRICES MUCH HIGHER THAN LAND REGISTRY” - £231,000 SAYS ONS £161,777 SAYS LAND REGISTRY...
I’ve been thinking a lot about transparency lately. So much so that I was beginning to doubt whether I really understood what it meant...
At last summer has arrived, but the economic outlook remains as gloomy and unpredictable as all that wet weather we had been having...
Distribution was king for both the specialist and securitising lenders through the late nineties and early noughties, indeed right up to the implosion of the sub-prime sector in 2007/08...
Things are looking up for me lately: life is being good to me and I am having fun. I have been around long enough to know that what goes up must come down, but also that you have to enjoy the moment...
With transactions becoming more complex, anti-money laundering restrictions more onerous and lenders more demanding, mortgage brokers and estate agents know that a client’s choice of lawyer has never been more critical to the success or otherwise of a deal...
The word on everyone’s lips at the moment is NewBuy. Three main lenders have so far thrown their hats into the ring to support the new Government scheme...
As the mortgage and property expert for BBC Radio Somerset, I was asked to voice my opinion/concern about the possibility of a future repossession boom...
The announcement of a rise in the Standard Variable rate of interest charged by the Halifax came as something of a surprise, but provides a salutary reminder of just how things can change...
Hi folks, it’s not quite spring yet, but something encouraged me to embark on a campaign of changing a few of the things around me...
There was good news at the start of the year that the number of advisers leaving the market has slowed significantly...
My belief is that we should now see the market continue to build. 2011 is now behind us and although for the wider economy the news has in general been somewhat downbeat, it was a year for the mortgage market where further stability returned and a significantly greater degree of confidence was re-established, particularly within the intermediary sector...
Any new year appears to be a time when many of us are kick-started into action. While I’m sure the most common resolutions are to get fitter and lose excess pounds put on over Christmas, there are others who use the New Year as a time to get their finances in order, to remortgage or to move house...
With the results for November released by HM Land Registry, we can now begin to assess just how 2011 was for the housing market...
Unauthorised regulated business Last month, the press reported that the FSA had arrested five people over allegations relating to land banking investments sold through an unauthorised collective investment scheme...
This week has seen the publication of the much anticipated Mortgage Market Review, with the FSA setting out its proposals on changes it wants to bring about in the mortgage arena...
I believe that the FSA’s recent Mortgage Market Review consultation paper will be warmly received by mortgage intermediaries as it focused on achieving the right consumer outcomes...
This week, the monthly charade that is the RICS’s ‘sentiment survey’ was published with the collective views of about 250 chartered surveyors and what their gut instincts say has happened to house prices in the past four weeks...
Hi folks, I had no luck with my dinner jacket plea, unfortunately. Does anyone read this blog? If so, please reveal yourselves (in the decent way, of course!)...
As I was making my way back home on the train from two days at Mortgage Business Expo London I wondered if indeed I was on the right train as the conductor mumbled his announcement at such a pace and so incomprehensibly that no-one could understand a word he said...
Hi folks, I’ve been wading through a spate of industry and trade magazine awards dinners...
The latest revised economic growth figures paint a continuing picture of an economy struggling to move forward...
Another month has passed with no change to the Bank of England base rate following the monthly Monetary Policy Committee meeting earlier in September...
Hi folks, it looks like it’s going to be a long, hard, cold winter ahead for several reasons...
The current economic climate has changed the lending landscape, including the secured loan market...
As the new football season kicked off – with no big summer tournament in place it seems like an age since the end of the last one – for firms across a multitude of sectors it is the time for posting their half-time results...
The first-time buyer market and the problems attached to it certainly account for a good deal of column inches, but a big, if not bigger problem are the issues facing the second-time purchaser...
Hi folks, I hope you are all getting your fair share of sunshine. It’s not been too bad here in northern Bedfordshire, although driving up the motorways to Southport last Friday took me through plenty of the wet stuff...
Forewarned is forearmed We live in a world of raised consumer awareness, where everything is questioned and challenged...
What is the state of the UK housing market? Is the glass half full, and if so, is it a glass of Retsina? Publication of the latest report from HM Land Registry on Tuesday brought the final data to provide a summary of the health of the housing market for the first chunk of this year, and with it some pretty important numbers...
The housing conundrum continues. How to help first-time buyers? How to bridge the supply gap? How to balance competition with risk? How to interpret interest and swap rates? The questions go on and on, the problem being that the answers for many potential borrowers, and providers for that matter, remain difficult to come by...
The Halifax survey at the end of May interviewed 8,000 ‘not-yet home-owners’ and found that two-thirds never expect to own their own home...
Hi folks. It was, to me, sadly inevitable. The Hammers have been dodging relegation too often in the last three seasons...
With Government spending cuts looming, higher inflation, tax increases and interest rate rises becoming more likely, it is hardly surprising that banks expect repossessions to increase in 2011...
Working within the mortgage market for far more years than I’d care to elaborate upon, it’s always been clear that in order to progress, all those operating in the intermediary market must be open-minded when it comes to innovation, ideas and new concepts...
The latest report from HM Land Registry piles yet more statistics on to our collective knowledge of the housing market in England and Wales...
It seems that it’s not just the unfeasibly good spell of weather that is shining bright at the moment, as the intermediary market has shown some increasingly positive signs since the onset of spring...
Hi folks, these are turbulent times indeed, and not just in Financial Services. Things will never be the same again for so many people in this world, who have had their lives turned upside down by both natural and man-made disasters and tragedy...
An interesting shift has taken place in the attitude of some mainstream lenders towards buy-to-let borrowers...
The spotlight has certainly returned to the remortgage market over the past six months, fuelled by some lenders’ increased appetite for remortgage business and underlying factors such as interest rate speculation and rising inflation...
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- Brian Murphy: Blog........
- Asking prices hit their highest ever, says Rightmove........
- Tenet unveils social media offering for advisers........
- Help to Buy properties advertised at 'misleading' prices........
- Mutual launches new shared ownership deals........
- Regulator consults on new 'big brother' affordability regime........
- Home owners seduced by good remortgage rates........
- Estate agents report their best month since the crash........
- More older people in mortgage woes, debt charity warns........
- Housing market turns a corner, say estate agents........
