Rates on the rise act NOW!

Barclays / Woolwich who have had some very tempting deals for purchase and in particular re-mortgages have announced increases for applications submitted after Wednesday, but funds need to be booked TODAY (and these are rationed to £70m a day).

Those who watch these things may have noticed SWAP rates increasing over the last two weeks, reflecting market sentiment on inflation prospects and the expected knock on effect on interest rate rises and timings. After a period of falls since the General Election, rates have now started edging upwards again.

Whilst small at the moment, as ever no one can say if this is the start of a trend. No doubt we will all read differing opinions from so called "experts" as to interest rate prospects into the New Year.

Anyway, back to Barclays:
Variable margins increased by up to 0.2%, 2 year fixed 0.09%, 5 year fixed 0.3%.

Another "Kick in the Teeth"!

Accord, who are a wholly owned subsidiary of the now merged Yorkshire Building Society and Chelsea Building Society Group have just announced the following (timed today (7th December) at 17:15 hrs GMT):

"Please be advised that from tomorrow 08 December Accord will no longer accept the following forms of income:

Working Family Tax Credit and / or Child Tax Credit and / or Child Benefit".

These days most lender's "Affordability" Calculators will (probably rightly) reduce your net available income if you have children to pay for. However, in return they (currently at least) will then add back in child related benefits.

The only outcome of this type of decision if it is implemented across the industry, will be to further reduce the borrowing capacity of those with children. Those who currently have a mortgage could (in theory) find themselves trapped with their existing lender and unable to get a better deal elsewhere; due to these "moved goalposts".

So the morale of this sad story, maybe is don't wait to review your options, you may have the "rug pulled from under you"!

Some better news from the mortgage market!

November saw a loosening of credit conditions in the mortgage market for the first time in six months, research conducted by e.surv chartered surveyors has revealed.

More mortgages were approved by providers in the month and there were more successful applications at higher loan-to-value tiers. The number of mortgage approvals rose to 48,846 - the highest total since May - compared with 47,185 in October. It is the first time since April that a monthly increase has been recorded.

Good news for professional landlords

Buy-to-let finance for professional landlords has been somewhat restricted since the beginning of the financial crisis in August 2007. The majority of lenders in the market have imposed lending limits that favour smaller scale landlords and offer criteria that only caters for "simple" buy-to-let propositions.

 Buy-to-let lending in total has reduced by about 85%!

But what about professional landlords who often have complicated financial needs?

We could provide access to a service which has "been designed to specifically cater for professional landlords". "Including: tracker rates starting from 4.30% and fixed rates from 5.30%".

Lending criteria include professional landlords facilities,such as limited company lending,  multi-unit blocks, student lettings and Houses in Multiple Occupation and a maximum loan per property of £2 million and aggregate lending on a portfolio of up to £5 million.