Government may force Northern Rock to issue more mortgages

Northern Rock the lender that was fully Nationalized last year by the British Government may have to boost the number of mortgages it issues, as rival lenders withdraw their finance facilities, according to a report.

Northern Rock has been in the process of reducing its mortgage book until now to repay taxpayers money. But according to the report in the Daily Mail, the government may well reverse its policy (read more…)

Category: Europe, Mortgage News | January 6th, 2009 | Comments (0)

Citigroup: Britain is heading for a lengthy and deep recession

According to Citigroup (NYSE:C), UK house prices are to drop a further 15 percent in 2009, and UK companies will face a 45 percent drop in earnings as we head into a deep and lengthy recession.

With consumer spending in the UK tagged 80 percent to house prices over the last 25 years, compared (read more…)

Category: Europe, Global Economy | January 6th, 2009 | Comments (0)

Lloyds TSB: Advises to check your home insurance in the big freeze

Check your insurance policy says Lloyds TSB Insurance after the cold spell has caused many water pipes to burst.

According to Lloyds TSB repairing burst water pipes can be extremely expensive, with the average repair costing about £1,400 and in some extreme cases costing up to £40,000 to (read more…)

Category: Europe, Home Insurance | January 6th, 2009 | Comments (0)

25 percent of all mortgage loans require 40 percent deposit

Mortgage lenders are insisting on larger deposits on their home loans, with December seeing an increase from 54 percent to 60 percent of new mortgage deals requiring 25 percent deposit according to MoneyFacts.

With the Bank of England announcing last week that banks and Building Societies will (read more…)

Category: Europe, Mortgage News | January 5th, 2009 | Comments (0)

Nationwide: No further cuts to tracker mortgage interest rates

Nationwide Building Society has said that it will not cut the interest rate on its tracker mortgage products any further, even if the Bank of England cut the base rate, according to reports from the BBC.

This is due to the collar clause which stipulates that the UK’s largest building society do not have to drop the rate lower than 2.75 percent on their tracker mortgage range, this is to effect (read more…)

Category: Europe, Interest Rates | January 5th, 2009 | Comments (0)

Alistair Darling ponders on how to get the bank’s lending

The UK Government has said they are contemplating further plans to encourage UK banks to increase lending to businesses and households.

Alistair Darling, Chancellor said that injecting more taxpayers money into banks was not the “first port of call”. The Chancellor also added that they will be holding (read more…)

Category: Business News, Europe, Global Economy | January 5th, 2009 | Comments (0)

Royal Bank of Scotland & Nationwide Slash rates on variable savings

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) along with Nationwide, Alliance & Leicester, NatWest, Barclays (LON:BARC), Halifax, Lloyds TSB (LON:LLOY) and Abbey have all slashed the interest on the variable saving accounts, some by more than 1 percent according to moneyfacts.co.uk.

On some accounts rates have been slashed to just 0.1 percent at a time that many households (read more…)

Category: Europe, Interest Rates | January 5th, 2009 | Comments (1)

Promising news for first time buyers in 2009

First time buyers are faced with a brighter future in 2009, according to the Halifax First-time buyer affordability review.

With the house price to earnings ratio improving dramatically in the last 18 months, giving first time buyers the chance to take advantage of the low house (read more…)

Category: Europe, Mortgage News | January 5th, 2009 | Comments (0)

50 percent of middle class professionals fear they may be repossessed

Research shows that 50 percent of middle class homeowners are in fear of losing their properties in 2009 as they continue to struggle to pay their mortgage payments according to reports in the Daily Telegraph.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders predicts that the number of repossessions will hit 75,000 next year nearly double of this (read more…)

Category: Europe, Mortgage News | December 30th, 2008 | Comments (0)

Homeowners stop borrowing against the equity in their properties

Between July and September of this year borrows increased the equity in their homes by £5.7 billion instead of withdrawing it by borrowing on the strength of the property value, this is the largest cash injection since 1970 when records began according to the Bank of England.

With the lack of funding and falling house prices it is now very difficult for a homeowner (read more…)

Category: Europe, Global Economy | December 29th, 2008 | Comments (0)