Nationwide Building Society is today reducing its maximum loan to value ratio (LTV) to 90% on all of its products for new borrowers except its three-year fixed rate and three-year tracker mortgages. New borrowers will need at least 10% deposit on all their products except the two mentioned above. New customers wanting to take out the group’s standard variable deal, which it calls its base mortgage rate, will now need a deposit of at least 25%, while the maximum amount the group will lend on any of its mortgages to new borrowers will be capped at £500,000. The two remaining products that Nationwide is offering to people with a small deposit are only available by going direct to the lender and cannot be obtained through brokers. Nationwide described the move, which takes effect from May 1, as part of its ‘ongoing approach of managing the business in a prudent and sustainable way’.
Archive for the ‘Mortgages’ Category
Nationwide increases minimum deposit to 10%
Monday, April 28th, 2008How to avoid the negative equity trap
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008Here are a list of what you can do:
- If your mortgage is interest-only, switch to repayment asap. It will be more expensive in the short term but will save you thousands in interest in the long run.
- Pay extra on your mortgage every month. This will reduce the debt and cut the interest that you are charged each month. But check how much you are allowed to repay penalty free.
- If you want to repay more than the bank will allow penalty free then put the extra cash into a cash Isa first for tax free savings. This can then be used to bolster your equity when you want to move home or remortgage.
- Don’t be tempted to borrow from other sources such as credit cards to repay your mortgage.
For more information, visit thisismoney.com
Mortgage approval slumps as banks run out of cash
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008In a year, mortgages for people buying a home have dived by 46% as Britain’s banks run out of money to lend. Figures from the British Bankers Association (BBA) showed mortgage approvals for house purchase in March tumbling to its lowest figure since records began in 1997. This shows the extent to which banks are tightening their belts as they find themselves unable to secure funding for mortgages. Borrowers needing to remortgage or purchase a home are finding lenders have raised rates to reflect their own higher borrowing costs and increase margins on mortgages. Many are also demanding higher deposits to protect against house price falls and to raise the quality of their loan books. The rising cost of securing funding on the money markets has seen the inter bank lending rate Libor rise to 0.9% above the bank rate of 5% - the historical average is 0.13%. This has substantially pushed up the cost of new tracker rate mortgages, which are heavily influenced by Libor. The BBA said it expected lending to continue to weaken due to the continuing decline in mortgage approvals.
London’s negative equity locations
Sunday, April 20th, 2008The London postcodes at greatest risk from the housing crisis was revealed today by the Evening Standard. Tens of thousands of home owners across the capital will be plunged into negative equity this year if property prices fall by 20%. People who have taken on huge mortgages compared with the value of their property will owe more than the building is worth. The worst hit would be buy-to-let investors who tried to cash in on the housing boom, according to analysis obtained by the Evening Standard. Below are the top 10 streets and London boroughs most likely to be affected. Find out more at thisismoney.co.uk.
Top 10 London streets most at risk:
Calderwood Street SE18
Erebus Drive SE28
Queenstown Road SW8
Woolwich Common SE18
St Saviours Estate SE1
Glashier Street SE8
Greenhaven Drive SE28
St John’s Estate N1
Great Dover Street SE1
Borough High Street SE1
Risk level by London boroughs:
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£5k fee to take out your next mortgage
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008Homeowners are facing fees of up to £5,000 to take out a mortgage. A devastating report released yesterday shows that the average cost has almost doubled in a year. Interest rates charged by banks have also gone up. Separate Government figures out yesterday brought further bad news in that house prices are falling at their fastest rate since records began. After all the panic in the mortgage market, people may be tempted to grab the best headline rate deal but the fees must also be taken into consideration. HSBC charges up to £5,000 for its recently introduced ‘Rate Matcher’ deal, which lets homeowners whose current fixed-rate deal is about to expire get the same rate with HSBC for another two years. The mortgage meltdown continued yesterday with the number of deals available falling to just over 4,000 from 15,599 last summer.
Halifax defies plea by PM and raises its loan rates
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Britain’s biggest mortgage lender today defied Gordon Brown’s plea to cut mortgage rates. The Halifax is raising rates on some mortgage offers by 0.5% despite his calling bank chiefs to No10 to urge them to sign up to the Government’s strategy to tackle the global economic turmoil. The Prime Minister was also bluntly warned that a string of building societies could be forced out of the mortgage market by the looming crisis. Mr Brown is said to be prepared to offer banks help to raise funds but wants them to pass on interest rate cuts, do everything they can not to repossess the homes of people struggling to meet their mortgage payments, and to offer loans to first-time buyers. The Bank of England is injecting a further £15bn of liquidity into the markets, taking its total recent support to more than £50bn.
Lenders raise rates despite cut by the Bank
Saturday, April 12th, 2008The Bank of England cut its base rate by o.25% to 5% on Thursday to stop the economy’s slide towards recession. However, relief for home owners was instantly undermined by a new wave of mortgage rate increases from Britain’s biggest lenders. Many lenders are yet to pass on the recent base rate reductions - instead they are busy increasing rates, demanding larger deposits, tightening lending criteria and, in some cases, withdrawing deals from the market altogether. Most of the big lenders, including Halifax, Nationwide, the Woolwich, Cheltenham & Gloucester and First Direct also said within minutes of the Bank’s announcement that they will be cutting their standard variable mortgage rates by the full 0.25%. Both Nationwide and Alliance & Leicester are believed to have been overwhelmed by applications from borrowers coming off cheap fixed deals and want to choke off the demand with yet another big increase of upto 0.35% in less than two weeks. The increases followed similar moves from Woolwich, Halifax and Abbey.
Has the Bank of England lost control?
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Some are questioning whether the financial turmoil has rendered the Bank of England powerless to direct how much the biggest financial names on the High Street charge for credit and pay customers for their deposits. For many, today’s predicted cut in base rate will be meaningless. While banks and building societies have been cutting savings rates, they have also been raising mortgage rates for new borrowers. The only people to benefit would be existing mortgage customers on the track rates which follows the movement of the base rate. The current market turmoil could however be providing banks and building societies with the opportunity to rebuild their profit margins after being hit (at various levels) by the subprime market. Once again, the consumers are paying for the cost of the financial industries’ imprudence.
HSBC offers to match mortgage deals
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
HSBC has offered to match the interest rate of any borrower coming off their fixed rate deals. This will apply to both HSBC customers and those remortgaging. It effectively shields borrowers from the recent increases in the cost of home loans. The Rate Matcher will mean their existing fixed mortgage rates - down to a cut-off point of 4.54% - will continue for another two years. But the deal will only last for five weeks so mortgage borrowers need to act quickly to take advantage. It is only available direct to consumers as the bank does not offer its mortgage products through mortgage advisers. Borrowers can borrow up to a maximum of 80% of their property’s value (20% deposit required) and a fee will be payable depending on the rate fixed. A maximum of £250,000 can be borrowed via the Rate Matcher service, although customers with larger mortgages can take the remainder on a standard HSBC deal. The offer is only available for borrowers whose current mortgage deal runs out before the end of June. The offer is available from 14th April until 18th May. This is a pleasant change from the do-nothing attitude most big lenders appear to be adopting at the moment!
The last 100% mortgage has now been axed
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
The last 100% mortgage on offer has been scrapped by Abbey following similar decisions by its rivals. Since the credit crunch began last summer, more than 70% of mortgage deals have disappeared. Before Christmas, 33% of lenders offered mortgages of 100% or more. Now the only remaining 100% deals, from Bristol & West and Bank of Ireland, do not qualify as ‘mainstream’ mortgages. They are aimed at first-time buyers and require a homeowner’s parents to guarantee the loan. Typically, today’s buyer must have a deposit of 5% or more. And to secure a competitive deal, 25% is needed, as lenders charge higher rates for those with smaller deposits.
