Compare Mortgages

Mortgage lenders and property agencies have just released their latest figures for the UK housing market displaying some conflicting results but the overall mood from analysts appears to be one of optimism for improvements in housing market activity.

Property prices are on the rise again according to the latest survey by the Rightmove property agency website. They reported the largest average monthly house prices rise in two years during February to leave the average residential house asking price in England and Wales at 201,600.

In their report, Rightmove put the record asking prices down to a shortage of sellers and increasing demand, especially a return of buyers at the lower end of the market which should have a knock on effect further up the property ladder.

However Miles Shipside, Rightmoves commercial director, sounded a note of caution, Sellers must not get too ambitious or the recovery could run out of steam as affordability is over-stretched again.

The Rightmove findings seems to stand in contrast to the figures recently released in the FT House price index, which shows that the, recovery of house prices since the Autumn has been extremely muted and did not gather pace at the start of 2006. The FT also reported that two other separate sets of secured loans data published about the same time, showed mortgage lending for January was down on the previous month but higher than the figure for January a year ago.

The FT house price index shows a subdued market rather than the more buoyant figures from Rightmove, or the lenders, the Halifax and the Nationwide. The FT believes that their figures based on Land Registry data provide an accurate representation of the market, with the figures from the lenders bouncing around, in ways most unlikely to reflect reality.

Many of those who are currently seeing a restrained increase in the market figures are looking towards possible future Government action through the Bank of England to increase sales. Howard Archer, the chief UK economist at financial analyst Global Insight, feels that an interest rate cut is on the cards in the early part of 2006. Mortgage comparison site Moneynet believes that a widely expected Bank of England base interest rate cut will lead to the housing market, getting a shot in the arm with many people looking for the right mortgage package to get them on the housing ladder.

Independent mortgage adviser from John Charcol, Ray Boulger, feels that an interest rate cut which will help the housing market is on the cards. “I expect to see at least two quarter point reductions in base rate this year and house prices to rise by about 5.5 per cent.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders most recent figures indicate mixed results with gross mortgage lending in January up by 32% to 23bn compared with the 17.4bn recorded in January 2005, however this was down from Decembers high of 26.9bn.

Although the recent reports appear to show contradictory and inconclusive results, Howard Archer commented that, Although the British Banking Association showed some slowdown underlying mortgage lending in January, this followed a particularly strong performance in December. Overall the data indicate the marked improvement in housing market activity – borne out by the latest report from Rightmove.

Disclaimer:

All information contained in this article, is for general information purposes only and should not be construed as advice under the Financial Services Act 1986.

You are strongly advised to take appropriate professional and legal advice before entering into any binding contracts.

Useful resources:

Financial Times house price index – http:news.ft.comcmss1d089640-fb60-11d8-8ad5-00000e2511c8.html
Moneynet mortgage comparisons – http:www.moneynet.co.ukmortgagesindex.shtml

Mortgage – Provides you the Best Deal against your home

You must have read or heard about the word Mortgage, but dont know what it means or stands for and how it can help you to make the best use of your property. So keep reading.

The word Mortgage refers to a contract in which borrowers can pledge their property as a security for a loan. Each group has a different need that they desire to fulfill through mortgages.
Mortgage caters to diverse group of people.

With the infinite number of mortgage options available in the finance market, you should choose the loan that is most appropriate for you because in case of mortgage your property is at stake.

A number of mortgage options are available in the market, few of them are: -

Council Right to buy mortgage – This mortgage is available for use by public housing tenants who wish to purchase their property under the Right To Buy Scheme. This scheme enables tenants to buy their homes at a discount price.

Buy-to-let mortgage – This mortgage is appropriate for people who wish to let their home on hire and gets rentals from the tenants. They are now available from plenty of mortgage lenders such as banks, building societies and specialists.

First time buyer This mortgage is available to first time buyer who wishes to buy home for the first time.

Self cert mortgage This mortgage requires borrower to disclose his income statement and the lender verifies for its accuracy. It help borrowers consolidate all their debts into one low monthly payment.

Pension mortgage – This is a tax efficient way of buying a property. It involves building up of pension fund and use of it in future to repay the debt.

Flexible Mortgage This mortgage allows you to vary your monthly repayments, you can over-pay or under-pay on the mortgage without incurring charges.

Reverse Mortgage This mortgage is usually taken by retired homeowners as a method to supplement their income

You can look for the lenders in the newspapers or Internet. You can derive information from Internet and can look for online lenders. What you need to do is to shop, compare and negotiate. You can browse through various websites and can also avail loan assistance and guidance from experts, thus minimizing the risk involved.

You can take a loan by mortgaging your property even if you have a poor credit history, a low credit score, no bank account, a history of payment arrears, defaults, county court judgements; mortgage arrears and even those who have been declared bankrupt. Your negative credit report cant refrain you from taking a loan.

The rate of interest charged in mortgaging your home is much lower than as in the case of taking an unsecured loan.

Mortgage works wonder. What you need to do is to look for the best deal, which you can find by shopping, comparing and negotiating among various lenders. Last but not the least the rate of interest charged in mortgaging your home is much lower than as in the case of taking an unsecured loan. So make the best out of your property.

Mias Calls On Mortgage Lenders To Fix Their Exit Fees

MIAS, the Mortgage and Insurance Advisory Services (http:www.mias-ltd.co.uk ), is concerned that, despite the recent publicity and various campaigns in the press, borrowers are still being stung by punitive exit fees.

Lenders charge exit fees when customers redeem their mortgage in full, for example, by switching their mortgage to a rival lender. Exit fees can also be termed administration charges, sealing fees or deeds-release fees and are raised to cover the cost of taking property deeds out of storage, sending them to a solicitor and producing a final account statement. Borrowers are warned when they sign up that if they switch lenders, theyll have to pay a fee but the size of that fee is not guaranteed to stay the same.

Within the last few years, lenders have increased their exit penalties steeply, with some now topping the 300 mark (http:www.mias-ltd.co.uknews-index.htm ). Firms have claimed that these hikes are necessary because of their increased costs and extra work, yet this justification appears hollow when one considers that property deeds are now held electronically at the Land Registry.

Alistair Good, Managing Director of MIAS said: One client, whose penalty had increased from 85 to 195 compared it with entering a car park where the prices were clearly displayed, only to find that they had more than doubled when it was time to pay.

He added: While we appreciate that lenders need to recoup the costs incurred when a mortgage is redeemed, borrowers need to be informed about these costs at the outset. If the fee is excessive, then the client can look elsewhere.

Although exit fees make up a tiny percentage of overall mortgage costs, it is unfair to hit a customer with an unexpected charge, which can reach 300. MIAS would like to see lenders state their exit fees clearly and fix them at the outset of deals. In this way, the client is treated fairly, in line with FSA guidelines.

One example is Northern Rock. Although they charge the relatively high fee of 250, they do commit to charge the fee stated when the client signs up for the mortgage. MIAS would like to see more lenders adopt this approach.
Commenting, Roger Milbourn, Director of MIAS, said: Exit fees, though unpopular with customers, are here to stay. But if lenders are to lose the tag of back door charging and reduce the flow of complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service, they must be more transparent about these fees.

We see no good reason why the exit fee cannot be fixed for the life of a mortgage, so that the client would be aware of the charge from the start. Under the current system, exit fees can increase by more than 350% by the time the client comes to redeem his or her mortgage. This makes a mockery of the FSAs requirement to treat customers fairly despite their claims that they are not a pricing regulator.

In the absence of fixed exit fees, it is imperative for mortgage brokers to go through closing charges carefully with the client. The adviser should explain that the borrower may incur a punitive charge if they switch lenders or pay off their mortgage early (http:www.mias-ltd.co.ukfaqs.htm ) and in this way, broker and client can compare products fairly.

For further information, please contact:

MIAS Ltd
0845 833 0878
Managing Director: Alistair Good
alistair@mias-ltd.co.uk

Director: Roger Milbourn
roger@mias-ltd.co.uk

Notes to Editor:

The Mortgage and Insurance Advisory Service (MIAS Ltd) is a firm of impartial mortgage advisers, offering a comprehensive service to clients seeking residential and commercial mortgages and mortgage protection.

Founded in 2002, MIAS has quickly gained a reputation for providing straightforward, impartial mortgage advice, matching clients up with some of the most competitive deals around. MIASs experienced brokers have expertise in all sectors of the mortgage market and look after the whole transaction from beginning to end, making the process as smooth and as headache-free as possible.

Lowest mortgage rates UK lowering the cost of mortgage

Mortgage is the most widespread industry that offered to loan borrowers with real estate as collateral. Mortgage has so many innovations and opportunities that a loan borrower can exploit them for their own benefit. You must have heard and read it elsewhere that mortgage rates are at an all time low. That is true. With growing competition in the mortgage industry getting lowest rates for mortgage in UK is not that difficult.

Yes that is true, but how does one find lowest mortgage rates in UK. Many borrowers are practically clueless the criteria to decide on whether the mortgage rates are lowest or not. When you are looking for lowest mortgage rates in UK, you will see that there is not any one single rate. There is a list of rates. And when you go to different loan lenders for rates, they will give to you several mortgage rates list, sometimes identical sometimes different. What is going on? You think in your mind. Is there any thing as lowest mortgage rates in UK? Yes, there is.

You will come across this message everywhere go look around lowest mortgage rates. Look around how? nobody tells you that. It is like standing on the start line not knowing this way you have to run. Calling loan lenders and asking for lowest interest will be practically useless. Also calling for lowest mortgage rates at different days will give you different rates for mortgage rates are changing everyday.

Who is responsible for getting you lowest rate for your mortgage in UK? Economy? President? Government? Inflation? Discard all the high words! It is you and you are one of the most fundamental factor responsible for finding lowest interest rate on your mortgage. With mortgage borrowers absolutely flooding the market place, mortgage lenders are lowering the mortgage rates to attract more and more customers. How can one attract customers for mortgage? By offering lowest interest rates.

However, it is not that easy. Every homeowner wants lowest interest rates for its mortgage in UK. Lowest rates on mortgage in UK are subject to a borrowers personal financial condition. Therefore, different mortgage borrowers will have different lowest rate for mortgage. One way to figure it out is to apply for mortgage quotes at different loan lenders. But are these quotes really consistent keeping in mind the fact that mortgage rates are continually changing. Most loan lenders will give you a correct quote for mortgage. A mortgage borrower looking for lowest rate should use APR to compare rates. APR will enable you to know true interest rates on mortgage including the interest, discounts, mortgage insurance and other related fees. This will enable you to get a true quote without any hidden fee which the lender might be concealing behind the lowest mortgage rate claim.

Prequalification is a way of discovering whether for mortgage will also enable you to know whether you are getting lowest interest rates or not. A lender will see your present current income, debt and basic credit history situation in order to qualify you for a maximum mortgage amount. When you find lowest interest rate for mortgage in UK, you can lock in your interest rate. A lock means the lender will lock in the lowest interest rate and points for a specific period of time that is usually the time during which the loan application is processed.

Lowest interest rates in UK are possible if you have good credit history. A good credit history has innumerable benefits in the loan market. Also lowest interest rates are possible adjustable rate mortgage. Adjustable interest rate mortgage in UK have interest rates lower than traditional mortgage. Also loan term of a mortgage should be lesser. A 15 year mortgage will mean lower rate of interest than a 30 year mortgage. A shorter loan term will always save money.

No other single factor has so much effect on your mortgage as mortgage rates. Getting a mortgage in UK at lowest rates will mean that you have agreed to all those who asked you to get the best mortgage deal. A little decrease in interest rates would mean big in terms of savings. There is loads of information available on internet to know how the market is currently fairing. Dont settle for the first mortgage rate you stumble upon because they seem lowest. Go to different mortgage lenders. And then decide. Lowest rate for mortgage is not the only factor to look out while mortgaging for but it certainly is one of the deciding factors.

So while you are jumping frantically from one site to another in order to get lowest interest rate, you forget that it will need some patience and hard work. Like all good things it wont come easily. Lowest rates for mortgage in UK wont be served on a platter. No way. If you had enjoyed doing homework in school, looking for lowest interest rate wont be a problem. Look around, study research, read and you will find mortgage rates not only lowest but surpassing your own mortgage rate arithmetic.

Recent statistics from the Department for Constitutional Affairs state that court actions by mortgage lenders rose to 28,476 in the second quarter of this year for those that dont follow such trends thats up over 50% on one year ago. Also, at 18,330, the number of repossession orders was the highest for 9 years.

Although yet to reach the previous peak of around 40,000 repossessions in the second half of 1991, this is a very worrying trend for homeowners and landlords alike, who have got used to permanently rising prices and historically low interest rates and borrowed against ever increasing equity either to fund a higher quality lifestyle or to pay the deposits on further investment properties.

The massive house price inflation over the recent years gives lie to Gordon Browns boasts about his low inflation economy. However the mock shock horror at the antics of yet another lying politician is of no importance. What is VERY important is the fact that it is consumer borrowing against this property price inflation that has kept the economy afloat. With house price inflation slowing, stopping, or going into reverse (depending on whose statistics you believe), people have nothing left to borrow against and are reaching their limits. Combined with the UKs near total de-industrialisation and reliance on the service sector (which has little or no export value), this is going to have a serious negative effect on the economy in the near future.

So what does that mean for you the landlord? A sudden large-scale collapse in prices – as seen in the early nineties – seems unlikely to this author because there are still more people in need of housing than there are suitable and available properties; simple supply and demand economics – people will still need property to rent.

However if the economy takes a severe downturn, aside from other problems too complex to cover here, then a lot more peoples rent will have to be met by the government. As well as the obvious strain on the taxpayer, this is quite obviously bad news for those private landlords who refuse to take tenants who are claiming housing benefit. If you think about it, Housing Benefit is better than free property advertising in that there are a constant stream of takers and the cheques definitely do not bounce!

Those negative landlords are, as in every business, the ones that will find themselves being left behind the proactive landlords who have already opened their minds and embraced the income stream generated by tenants on Housing Benefit. Although there may be problems at the moment, the council is working very hard to overcome them and make the service all that it should be.