A report from the Labour party has called for an independent housing commission to be established in order to raise the levels of home ownership in Britain. In England, home ownership levels have fallen from around 70.9 per cent in 2003 to [...]
Record low interest rates have helped contribute to a surge in remortgaging, while buy-to-let valuations dropped in the last year, according to research from Connells Survey and Valuation. In addition to low interest rates, the cut to the Bank Rate has benefitted [...]
A review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found that an estimated 750,000 mortgage borrowers could be due compensation, after being overcharged because of lenders mishandling arrears. In addition to arrears sometimes being added to customers' monthly mortgage payments, lenders would [...]
Figures from the Bank of England for August have revealed the lowest number of mortgage approvals since November 2014, with analysts saying it is a sign of the housing market cooling since the vote to leave the European Union. There were 60,058 [...]
The Bank of England has announced that the Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee scheme is no longer needed, several months before it is due to come to an end, due to a strong recovery of the mortgage market. The Help to Buy [...]
The Lifetime ISA (LISA), a long-term savings product being launched in April 2017, is having its rules changed to allow first-time buyers to use the government cash bonus for the exchange deposit, rather than waiting until the purchase is completed before paying [...]
Barratt Developments, the UK's largest housebuilder, has reported an increase in demand for its sales post-Brexit, suggesting that the decision to leave the EU might not hurt the housing market as much as expected. Barratt revealed it had delivered 17,300 homes - [...]
It has been claimed by The Telegraph that theHelp to Buy ISA, recently criticised as having misled first-time buyers, underwent a "lower level of scrutiny than usual" in order to save time and start the ISAs up as soon as possible. It [...]
First-time buyers cannot use the government's Help to Buy ISA scheme for an initial deposit on their first home, it has been reported, with the situation being branded as a "scandal" by experts. Last December George Osborne launched the Help to Buy [...]
The number of first-time buyers has fallen 34 per cent since 1994 according to data from the English Housing Survey, fuelled by a lack of affordable housing, the recession, and stricter criteria for mortgages. A random selection of households across England were [...]