landlords are looking to get good yields. I am also seeing a lot of first time buyers,
with quite large deposits too. They tend to be people who’ve been staying at home and saving, and at least a quarter have parents helping with the deposits. There are some really cracking rates out there which is helping. The people struggling are those who bought in the height and are looking to move on but who have no equity in their houses. We have also seen quite a few clients in
the last two months who were sitting on SVR and who now want to remortgage as they are concerned about interest rate rises. We are recommending 3-5 year fixed rates as 5-year fixes are still really low historically and we expect many more remortgages when rates inevitably do go up this year.
circumstances, not just about the mortgage but also making sure they have the right protection policies for them and their families as well as for their bricks and mortar.
by Chris Brown, Linear Financial Services, Maidenhead
Conditions are difficult, the market is no better or worse than it was six months ago and I don’t think that base rate is going to change this year. My priority is to make sure clients get the right cover so they stay in their house no matter what faces them in the future but it’s difficult dealing with many lenders because there is no consistency.
by Simon Hendy, Reeds Rains, Stoke on Trent
Business levels have increased weekly since the start of the year. I think there will be more remortgage activity throughout 2011 and we’ve already seen a rise in enquiries. People are being cautious and want to make sure their bills are covered – many continue to live beyond their means despite low interest rates. Many clients who have done well out of tracker mortgages are realising that they need to re-assess and maybe take out a fixed rate with the increased likelihood of interest rate rises this year. The latest inflation figures have heightened speculation over this. First time buyers are still going to find it
tough, lenders criteria will not get any easier and people are still finding it hard to raise the deposits they need. Overall though, there are huge
opportunities for advisers and we are carrying out regular reviews with all our existing clients – both for Treating Customers Fairly and for sound business reasons. Today is about looking at all the client’s financial
The vast disparity between all house price indices issued in the past month, or indeed in any one month, can make for confusing reading. With every house price index comes plenty of commentary from industry experts and pundits all giving their own point of view. And once you start following them all it soon becomes easy to get confused.
The truth of the matter is that there will always be conflicting data when it comes to house prices, month in, month out and source by source. So you might expect to see some positive figures from Nationwide that wouldn’t necessarily tally-up with the data from the Land Registry or Halifax. The consequence of institutions using different sampling measurements means all produce different outcomes; which then in turn creates what appear to be contradictory messages, which subsequently generate headlines. At Mortgage Introducer our economic forecasting prowess knows no bounds. And now, for the first time, we can reveal how we achieve our 100% success rate
Some lenders, like Abbey,
are incredibly good, others are incredibly hard to deal with, wanting new information every day, six months’ payslips with the client’s name on or suddenly pulling funds.
The best thing is that lenders are being more flexible: both Nationwide and Woolwich have trackers that let borrowers switch to a fixed rate if rates go up.
Buy-to-let is either really good or
really poor: people with a mortgage from a buy-to-let lender no longer in business are finding it hard to change; some clients could save more than £1,000 a month but have to jump through so many hoops, including proving retirement income when nowhere near retirement age –defeating the object of an interest only buy-to-let mortgage – that they can’t actually move away. n
when it comes to do with house price predictions. It’s all to do with maths. We’ve listed below 10 possible outcomes for the UK over the next 18 months and by following our guidelines you too will be able to pick the one that’s 99% likely to be true. To give yourself a fighting chance and not to change your first decision, you should do the following without looking at the answers first.
Pick a number between 1 and 9. Then multiply it by 3. Add 3, then multiply it by 3 again. Add the final two digits from your answer together then correspond it to the number below and hey presto! 1. Interest rates rocket to 7.5% 2. Interest rates rocket to 10% 3. Interest rates rocket to 15% 4. Bank of England collapses 5. House prices drop 50% 6. House prices drop 75% 7. House prices rise 50% 8. House prices rise 75% 9. We’ll be bumping along for some time yet
10. House prices rise 95% mortgage introducer MARCH 2011 31
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