News Review: Property


Brokers could see a 10% increase in business by


Nigel Stockton, financial services director,


Countrywide


Encouraging signs are emerg- ing that the Funding for Lending Scheme now has 35 participants which collective- ly drew down £4.4bn by the end of September. Sceptics are quick to point


out that FLS has not delivered any meaningful improve- ments for high LTV lending but without the enforcement of any lender targets, what did we expect?


“Any lender that responds to our calls for competi- tive pricing in the 90% LTV space deserves a pat on the back in my book”


While it’s impossible to


estimate where the market would be without the FLS, the latest figures are at least one of several positive indicators we’re seeing in the market, more of which I’ll cover later. Recent lender meetings


would suggest that there is a more upbeat outlook which has spurred me to estimate that we’re looking at a £145bn market for 2013 with two na- tional operators suggesting we could peak at £150bn. Te significance of this to us bro- kers is that for intermediaries that would mean a 5-10% in-


crease in written business.


Reasons to be cheerful Recent criteria changes have also given our brokers plenty of reasons to be cheerful with Halifax taking a major step forward by moving their new- build LTV to 90% in the same month they announced they had received 1,000 NewBuy applications since the initia- tive launched in March this year. Elsewhere there’s more


positive news for brokers as we’re already seeing improve- ments following Santander’s decision to shiſt their credit scores.


Good news Nationwide I was impressed to see Na- tionwide make the headlines several times for all the right reasons last month with inter- est rate drops for high LTVs, increased market share and new lending figures. Gross residential mortgage lend- ing for our friends at Nation- wide hit a four year high with £10.2bn advanced in the six months to 30 September – a 15% increase on last year. Any lender that responds


to our calls for competitive pricing in the 90% LTV space deserves a pat on the back in my book but demand still outstrips supply so let’s hope some other lenders come out of the starting blocks in 2013 with something exciting to show their commitment for the first-time buyer market- place. I was concerned to see the


product intervention debate re-surface last month – pre MMR I was quite vocal about this in that the FSA should not have any powers to in-


8 MORTGAGE INTRODUCER JANUARY 2013


tervene. My view is that the FSA should regulate what’s out there and allow lenders the freedom they need to in- novate.


“The FSA should regulate what’s out there and allow lenders the freedom they need to innovate”


Open to change On the subject of industry reforms, Peter Curran was quoted on another hot topic last year aſter sharing his views on proc fee changes. Impaired loan rates would be hard to influence so I think most of us share the opinion that as long as the measures are fair and we can influence the outcome then we’re open to the idea of change. Hot on the heels of Tesco


and Abbey, HSBC are still pushing hard for market share in the direct channel with their 1.99% rate – time will tell if this will last longer than the four weeks Tesco ran theirs for aſter running out of allocated funding. Post Autumn Statement,


the headlines were awash with talk of Stamp Duty Land Tax


(mansion tax driving away overseas and domestic invest- ment). Glad to see it didn’t happen. Already in London, Hamptons International esti- mate that 2012 saw 700 fewer transactions for £2 million+ properties as a result of these changes and potentially fore- gone somewhere in the re- gion of £150 - £175 million in SDLT taxation revenue.


London life London would have borne the biggest brunt of this fall in numbers with prime Cen- tral London prices said to be somewhere in the region of £1.35m but I have a bone to pick with these reports as the definition of ‘prime’ seems to vary from one source to another. For example, I was interested to hear a friend comment that while Knights- bridge can command up to £4,000 per square foot, Pim- lico, just a few minutes’ walk down the road is typically in the region of £1,000 - £1,500 per square foot.


Positive news Talk of sky high prices in Lon- don could be just as damag- ing to the market as taxation changes but I was relieved to see some positive news for the housing market with the Chancellor pledging £10bn for 120,000 new homes. It was a shame to see the idea Boris touted on reduced stamp duty for new homes not making the announcement – that would have given the market a real liſt but that might be one radi- cal move too far for the Gov- ernment given the number of measures they’ve introduced this year (it would have been a great one though).


www.mortgageintroducer.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48