This March saw the prices of residential properties rising at the fastest rate since just before 2007’s financial crisis, with the average price of a home in the UK increasing by 10.2% in the year up until March. The stamp duty holiday introduced by the Government certainly played a part in this development. Having been …
Over the past year we’ve seen tens of thousands of people lose their jobs. We’ve seen businesses up and down the country cease trading and we’ve seen enough uncertainty to last most of us a lifetime. At the moment the forecasts are that the UK economy will be back to pre-Covid levels by the second …
Home-owners with equity to speak of and would-be first time buyers are having particularly different experiences of the housing market at the moment. Cash-rich borrowers have access to mortgages seemingly getting cheaper by the day, whilst those who are trying to buy their first property with small deposits have very few options, if any at …
At the virtual Conservative Party Conference on 6th October, Prime Minister Boris Johnson gestured towards a plan in the pipeline to introduce 95% Loan To Value mortgages in an attempt to reinvigorate home ownership and in his words, “help turn generation rent, into generation buy.” While the details of this plan remain unclear, the PM …
The effects of the so-called ‘Stamp Duty Holiday’ have dominated the recent property news. According to Rightmove, recent weeks have seen the highest number of agreed house sales in a single month since it started tracking them a decade ago. However, there has been some slightly less positive news that will affect many first-time buyers …
In his 8 July summer statement, Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed that the stamp duty threshold will be immediately raised to £500,000 in England and Northern Ireland, in what some have dubbed the ‘stamp duty holiday’. The rise in threshold lasts until 31 March 2021 and will apply to both first-time buyers and previous owners. Sunak …
Many workers have lost their jobs, accepted part-time hours or been put on furlough as a result of the economic disruption caused by COVID-19. According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, British households will see a drop in their disposable income of £515 a month – that’s £14.2bn for the country overall. So …
You may be wondering what the current situation is with the mortgage market. Have providers stopped lending altogether? Are all new mortgage deals off? It’s true that some providers have withdrawn their higher loan to value (LTV) mortgage products. Nationwide, Santander and Skipton Building Society have recently announced that they’re only going to be offering …
It’s a tough environment for first time buyers. Rising house prices and stagnant wage growth have pushed up the average age of buying a first property to 33. What’s more, first time buyers need to borrow 18 times more than those in the 1970s. Given this context, it’s unsurprising that more and more parents and …
After 30th November 2019, potential first-time buyers will no longer be able to apply for a new Help to Buy ISA. Savers who already have an account will be able to keep saving into it until 30th November 2029, regardless of when the ISA was opened, but accounts will close to additional contributions after that …
