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The Barnsley, Hanley Economic and Market Harborough Building Societies were among the few mortgage lenders to make changes to their rates this week.

In a busy week at Trinity Financial, we secured access to a number of buy-to-let exclusive rates through The Nottingham Building Society. Trinity can now offer potential investors a two-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.19% with a £1495 arrangement fee, or a three-year fixed rate at 5.59% with a low £995 arrangement fee. Both mortgages require a 30% deposit.

One large bank that did introduce new mortgage rates was RBS through their intermediary lending arm NatWest Intermediary Solutions. They now offer a range of two-year fixed rates for both house purchases and remortgages. The house purchase rate is 3.55% and remortgage rate is 3.65%. Both mortgages require 30% deposits and have £999 arrangement fees, which can be added to the loan.

During the property boom many homeowners spent heavily on their credit cards and simply remortgaged their property to pay off the debt. But now many debt consolidation mortgages are being refused by lenders and second charges are becoming the only viable options for those wanting to reduce their monthly outgoings.

There are a range of second charge lenders and they offer different products for their clients. Some still offer loans on a self-certification basis and even to those with up to three missed mortgage payments in the last year.

The cheapest second charge rates start at around 10% and can get considerably higher. Trinity are currently helping homeowners to reduce their monthly out goings and consolidate their debts. To find out how we can help you call one of our experts today.

February 26, 2010

Britain’s oldest building society The Chesham agreed to be taken over by the much larger Skipton Building Society yesterday. The Skipton have 830,000 members and have just announced pre-tax profits of £63.5 million. The Chesham was founded in 1845 and have 20,000 members. They have three branches – in Chesham, Aylesbury and Little Chalfont – which Skipton say will remain open for at least 12 months.

The takeover has not yet formally been agreed by the Chesham’s members or the Financial Services Authority.

This is the second deal in a year for Skipton after they announced a tie-up with the Scarborough Building Society. They will add another £230 million worth of assets after the Chesham acquisition. 

February 26, 2010

The Royal Bank of Scotland has announced group losses of £3.6 billion in 2009. The group, which includes NatWest, Coutts banks and insurance firms Churchill and Direct Line, lost a massive £24 billion in 2008. Yesterday’s results were considerably better than some in the market were predicting.

Stephen Hester, group chief executive of RBS, was quoted as saying: “We are one year in to our five year turnaround plan and we have taken significant steps along the path to recovery.” The 84% state owned bank said that its bad debts rose to almost £13.9 billion last year.

Lloyds Banking Group announced their results today and have posted a £6.3 billion loss for 2009, slightly down on the £6.7 billion lost in 2008. Gross new mortgage lending at the group totalled £35 billion during 2009, which was a 24% market share. The average loan to value of their mortgages was a rather conservative 54.8%.

February 26, 2010

The Sunday Times  -  February 21, 2010

UK estate agents are likely to get a clean bill of health and escape being regulated when a report by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is published later today. The OFT have been studying all aspects of the process of buying and selling homes in the UK, including price competition, quality of service and whether the market actually needs to be regulated.

A recent survey suggested satisfaction with estate agents has improved.  The UK estate agent market was estimated to be worth £6.7 billion in 2007 from about 1.8 million transactions.

Peter Bolton King, the chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents, was one of those who led the call for official regulation, says he was disappointed. He is quoted as saying:

“Once again the OFT has categorically failed to see that better regulation of the home-buying and selling market is required. Buying a home is often the largest single transaction of a person’s life and it is disappointing that the OFT has not thought it appropriate to acknowledge a robust and appropriate level of consumer protection is needed.”

February 18, 2010

The market leading buy-to-let mortgage rate that Trinity Financial secured access to has been changed slightly this week.  The rate is still remarkably low at 3.405% and is still available to investors with a 40% deposit. The arrangement fee is 1.25% of the loan amount and the penalties for repaying the mortgage early are 1% within the first two-years. This mortgage is also available to limited companies.

The Mortgage Works (TMW) has made a return to limited company lending with a range of three mortgages. Many mortgage lenders have massively scaled down lending to companies over the last two-years and it is a positive sign to see mortgages being made available.  TMW also made reductions to their standard buy-to-let mortgage rates by up to 0.3%.

The Leeds Building Society changed the criteria to access their standard variable rates this week by introducing two tiers. The arrangement fee now changes depending on the amount an investor needs to borrow and, to qualify for the mortgage, they must now earn a minimum of £20,000 per year. The rate is still 5.79% variable, but the fees are more expensive. Loans up to 60% of the property value have a £999 arrangement fee and loans above between 60% and 70% ltv have a £1549 fee. These arrangement fees are very competitive compared to the rest of the market.

February 18, 2010

Extremely competitive mortgages are now available as mortgage criteria is gradually easing. The lowest two-year tracker rate is down to 2.49% and the lowest two-year fix is 3.44%. Both mortgages require a 30% deposit and have an arrangement fee of £995.

NatWest Intermediary Service launched a range of mortgages which Trinity Financial have secured exclusive access to. These rates are available to those looking to buy a property and rates get lower for those with larger deposits.

Borrowers with a 40% deposit can access a two-year tracker at 2.69% with a £999 arrangement fee. Those with a 20% deposit have the option of a two-year tracker rate at 3.49% - with a slightly cheaper arrangement fee at £499. If you have a 10% deposit, a two-year tracker rate is available at 4.99% with a £99 fee. For those who feel a high margin above base rate is just too risky, we have an additional option of a three-year fixed rate at 5.89%. This has a £999 fee.

February 12, 2010

More banks and building societies have lowered their mortgage rates this week as they try to attract more business.  Northern Rock, Abbey, Clydesdale Bank and Nationwide Building Society are the biggest lenders to make changes.

Northern Rock edged closer to their competitors, such as Abbey and HSBC, by reducing their mortgages by up to 0.4%. There is also further good news as there are signs that Northern Rock’s strict lending criteria is easing. In recent weeks more borrowers have been accepted for mortgages and loans of up to £2 million are now available with arrangement fees of £595. This is providing much needed competition to the private banks which have been undercutting some of the high street banks.

Aaron Strutt, a broker at Trinity Financial Group, said: “More lenders are lower their rates because they are still not getting as much business as they would like. By gradually lowering their more popular fixes and trackers, they expect to get closer to their lending targets.”

“The minimum deposit required to qualify for a mortgage with Nationwide and The Co-operative Bank was lowered this week from 40% to 30%.  This is an important step as we are moving away from borrowers only with a 40% deposit being able to access the best rates.”

Nationwide and UCB specialist lending announced that they are following Skipton’s lead by increasing their standard variable rate on February, 1. Many borrowers with self-certification mortgages will see their rate rise from 4.69% to 5.19%.

The Ecology Building Society also said that they were raising their SVR by 0.25%, taking it to 4.90%.

Borrowers sitting on a lenders SVR that have at least 20% equity in their property and a clean credit history, should consider remortgaging if they have not done so already.

Below is a table showing some of the largest banks and their standard variable rates.  This may help you see how competitive your present rate is:

February  11, 2009

A host of mortgage lenders have either introduced more mortgages or lowered their existing mortgage rates this week. The largest lenders to make changes include: Abbey, Leeds Building Society and Cheltenham and Gloucester (C&G).

C&G lowered some of their fixes by up to 0.3%. Abbey introduced an extremely competitive range of fixed rate mortgages for borrowers with a 20% deposit, which start at 4.99%. They also provide a free property valuation and cash-back for those looking to purchase a property.

Leeds Building Society clearly plans to lend more money from the changes they have made. They have lowered the deposits required for many of their mortgages.

One exception to the rate reductions was the Coventry Building Society. They increased some of their market leading rates by around 0.2% and made them available only to borrowers looking to remortgage.

January 29, 2009

Provisional figures from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have also shown that 104,000 deals involving properties above £40,000 were completed in December. This was the first time since December 2007 that the number has risen above £100,000.

Nationwide’s latest house price survey said that the average house price rose by 1.2% in January this year. This means that the average price of UK home is £163,481, up from £162,103.

January 29, 2009