Archive for March, 2008
First time buyers attracted to tracker mortgage deals
Expectations of future cuts in interest rates have led to a “greater appetite” for tracker rate mortgages, one expert has claimed. Sue Anderson, a spokesperson for the Council of Mortgage Lenders, explained that while first-time buyers have traditionally been more attracted to fixed rate mortgages, changing economic conditions are also changing attitudes. Anderson said: “At [...]
Number of buy to let loans exceeds first time buyer activity for the first time
The number of mortgages issued to buy to let investors has overtaken those issued to first-time buyers for the first time since records began. The figures have reignited the debate about the impact the booming buy to let market has had on affordable housing across England. In the last quarter of 2007 81,100 loans were [...]
Buy to let mortgages dry up
Demand for rental properties continued to grow as landlords saw their yields increase says the RICS Lettings Survey. However, access to the buy-to-let market became harder for would-be-landlords as mortgage products became scarce… 16% more Chartered Surveyors reported a rise than a fall in tenant lettings, down from 20% in the last quarter.Significantly, demand for [...]
Landlords link with councils in win-win housing scheme
Evidence emerged this week that the credit crunch could be starting to affect buy-to-let landlords. The Royal Institution of Charted Surveyors (Rics) said instructions to let residential properties in the UK fell in the fourth quarter of 2007 – the first decline since its 1998 survey. The fall is thought to be partly a result [...]
Poverty ‘blights 1m rural homes’
Almost one million households in rural England live in poverty, a study says. The report, by the government’s rural advocate, Stuart Burgess, says many people living and working in the countryside have prosperous lifestyles. But the picture is “not so rosy” for more than 928,000 households with incomes below the official poverty line of £16,492, [...]
