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by Rodney McKirgan, Mortgage Angels NI, Northern Ireland, First Complete
Things are very good; mortgage business has been getting brisker since the start of February, unfortunately we are not able to obtain lending for some customers in the current lending climate. In Northern Ireland we have local lenders
like Ulster bank and Progressive Building Society who lend up to 90% LTV without which our first time buyer would be struggling a lot more. This first time buyer influx reiterates local public opinion that property prices have fallen considerably and they are potentially at the bottom so it’s time to get on the property ladder now. We also do a lot of self-build mortgage
business: Whilst self-build accounts for only 5% of all mortgages in the UK,it accounts for 30% of our business and 25% across the province as a whole. Our business split is about 50%
purchase; made up of 30% self-build and 20% first-time buyers and the other 50% is remortgage with clients primarily looking to consolidate debt and borrow for home improvements. We continue to focus on our clients’
protection needs, ensuring people’s mortgages and families are adequately insured and anticipate a steady increase in our business in the coming year.
by Stephen Giles, Swanland Investments and Mortgages, First Complete, North East
All my work comes from existing clients’ recommendations and I’m already as busy as I was last year, averaging 22 to 27 appointments a week. It has, of course, slowed down over the last three years: in 2007 I used to do 27 or 28 mortgage and life cases every week, whereas in the last year my average was about 15.
30 mortgage introducer MARCH 2011
People want to buy houses but there’s
not a comprehensive facility for first time buyers, although increasingly I’ve completed mortgages utilising vendor gifted deposits which helps individuals to buy, reduces their loan to value, their interest rate and monthly costs. I also encourage first time buyers to bring parents to an appointment as often there is a facility to remortgage their own properties to assist children with deposits. I see a lot more people investing in
buy-to-let so they will have a facility to help their children buy a house in a few years’ time and expect the fastest growth area to be the private landlord market. I think people in the UK will always
predominantly be homeowners all that’s required is an easing of the market to provide a range of mortgages to allow people to buy.
by Sandy Hollingworth, Your Move, Kirkaldy, Scotland
The first few weeks of the year have been fantastic and I hope it continues. We really suffered in Scotland at the tail end of last year so we may be seeing some pent up demand. We are seeing both new and existing
customers and have done many more remortgages in the first six weeks of this year than we did last year. The LSL brand gets us exclusives and those rates are definitely helping. Remortgages are increasing as people
read or hear things about potential interest rate rises. We are also seeing a steady stream of first time buyers, the problem is frequently the deposit, but even if they can afford the amounts they are borrowing, often a mortgage is declined with very minor problems as credit scoring is so tight - the scoring with some lenders is nigh on impossible. The rest of the year is going to depend
on the rates and we need to see a bit of lending freed up.
Rates are going up sooner rather than
later and we’ve already seen fixed rates going up – some with just three hours’ notice like the bad old days.
by Greg Savoury, Your Move, Coventry
I found start of year quite tough and relatively slow, but it has picked up towards the end of February. I’m now seeing an array of people from investors down to first time buyers and some unusual ones where several siblings are on one mortgage or mum and son etc, but there are definitely more customers out there. I’m pretty confident that this year
will pick up; last year I averaged about ten mortgage deals a month, I did 25 more mortgages last year than I did in 2009 and I expect this year to be pretty similar. Last year people had to move, this year we are seeing more people who are speculative and want to move. Often, however, people are seeing more
than one adviser to get a quote and having a deeper shop around which I haven’t encountered before. I don’t think base rate will rise by 0.25%
until third quarter; my biggest worry is about the banks supporting the market. With the money they have to pay back to the Government, interest rates have already started to rise with some of the bigger banks and I think others will follow.
by Mark Ferneyhough, Reeds Rains, Stoke on Trent
We are really busy this year. I am seeing lots of people buying buy-to-let properties for the first time time. I only did three in the whole of last year and I’ve already done four so far this year. In my area property prices are quite cheap, so buy-to-let
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