Archives: Newsletter

Latest monthly update from Halifax shows that average UK house prices edged down slightly in July, with the monthly fall of -0.3% equivalent to a drop of around £1,000 in cash terms. While this was the fourth consecutive monthly decrease, all have been smaller than -0.5%. Prices are little changed over the last six months, … Slight fall in property prices but housing market resilient

Buyer and seller sentiment remains more positive than at the back end of last year when confidence took a significant dip says Savills. Cash purchasers, needs-based under 40 buyers looking to relocate for work or looking to right size their home to better suit an expanding family, and relocators are the driving force behind the … Budgets squeezed but not for cash buyers

Rightmove’s recent Greener Homes Report says the new build sector has a significant advantage in leading the greener homes revolution. While the merits of air source heat pumps have been debated at length, new homes’ developers are trialling them on live sites ready for 2025. Barratt Homes describes the benefits of building from scratch installing … Heat pumps and homes of the future

Leeds Building Society has taken a positive step in aiding prospective first-time buyers by partnering with fintech company Life Moments to launch the ‘First Home Helper’ tool. The online tool aims to provide impartial guidance on the various paths to homeownership available to aspiring homebuyers. The user-friendly tool runs potential buyers through a series of … Leeds Building Society Introduces ‘First Home Helper’ Tool

The WhatHouse? New Homes Index has just released data indicating that buyer interest in new build homes across Britain has increased, reaching a peak during Q2 of 2023. The period witnessed a total of 493,521 buyer searches, marking a significant 135% increase compared to figures from Q1. Furthermore, the national average price of new home … New Build Searches Surge to All-Time High in Q2

Specialist mortgage lender Pepper Money has unveiled a specialised mortgage proposition to support the First Homes Scheme —an initiative by the government to make homeownership more accessible for individuals and families. The First Homes Scheme offers new build properties at a significant discount of at least 30% off the open market value. Furthermore, local authorities … Pepper Money Introduces First Homes Mortgage Proposition to Aid Aspiring Homeowners

In June this year a MORTGAGE CHARTER was agreed between the government and the majority of lenders to help protect vulnerable residential mortgage borrowers, at a time of rising interest rates and with many coming towards the end of their Fixed Rate deals. (Source: HM Treasury, 26 June 2023 release) This Charter (which doesn’t apply … Reassurance for you

Surely, it’s better to have protection cover and hopefully not need it, than to need it and not have it! Protection insurance may feel like an unnecessary expense, but not to the beneficiaries of the £13m paid out each day for life cover, or the 41,760 that were able to claim in one year, when … Importance of Protection

800,000 borrowers are coming to the end of their fixed rate deal in the second half of 2023. This equates to around one-tenth of all borrowers. (Source: UK Finance, June 2023) Broadly, for those now looking to remortgage, there could be three main options to consider: – Do nothing, and be placed on the lender’s … Time to Remortgage?

The latest 0.5% rise in the Base Rate to 5% could have the following effect: Fixed Rate borrowers If you’re on a fixed rate deal, then any change in the Base Rate would not affect you until your deal period ends. Although, it may influence decision-making 6 months+ ahead of the end of your deal … How it may impact you

Swap Rates influence Fixed Rate mortgage deals. The 5-year Swap, for example, rose to 5.21% following the mini-Budget in September, and dropped to 3.25% at the start of February. Since then, it’s risen steadily, ahead of the recent spike where it’s around 5%. (Sources: Chatham Financial, Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) Swap rates, to 30 … Converging movement of Swap Rates and Bank of England Base Rate

According to the latest study on broadband coverage in UK new build homes during the second half of 2022, an impressive 98.3% of houses constructed by the end of the year were covered by a fixed Fibre-tothe-Premises (FTTP) network. This percentage remains unchanged from the first half of 2022. However, when considering the latest early … Full Fibre Broadband Now Covers 98% of UK New Build Homes