Mortgage lending increased throughout August
Mortgage approvals have reached the highest level since December 2009, figures released today show. During the month of August 52,410 house purchase mortgages were approved, which is the highest number since December 2009.
The average number of approvals over the previous six months stood at 47,551 for house purchase mortgages, with August seeing almost 3,000 more than July.
The number of remortgage approvals also saw a rise with 34,668 going through compared to 31,652 in July.
The figures released today also show that lending to individuals rose by £1.0billion in August leaving the 12 month growth rate unchanged at 0.9%.
Lending secured on properties rose by £0.6billion to £11.7billion, in line with the average increase over the last six months.
UK House Prices Increased By 0.1%
Figures released today show that house prices in the UK increased by 0.1% in September. Nationwide’s monthly update suggests that the current risks to the UK and global markets mean that growth prospects have weakened slightly.
The average house price in the UK currently stands at £166,256 compared to £165,914 in August.
Commenting on the figures, Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s Chief Economist, said:
“UK house prices continued to tread water in September, with prices rising by 0.1% during the month. Prices were also essentially flat over the year, just 0.3% lower than September 2010. The three-month on three-month measure of house prices was unchanged in September.
“Sluggish demand for homes on the back of weak labour market conditions, combined with only a gradual rise in the supply of available properties, has helped to keep property prices fairly stable since the summer of 2010. We expect this trend to be maintained over the remainder of 2011, although downside risks have increased as UK and global growth prospects have weakened.”
Debt Consolidation
Debt consolidation is a very popular way to sort out your financial worries. Remortgaging and releasing equity from your home could be one way in which you do this.
Due to the current economic climate, loans aren’t being offered at the same rate they used to be. This means that people who are looking to consolidate their existing loans and credit cards don’t have the same options available to them they did a few years ago.
Depending on your circumstances, including the amount of equity you have in your property, credit history and debt level, releasing the equity from you home by remortgaging could be a simple and easy way of repaying your debts.
Here are our top tips of what to look out for.
- Work out your income, expenditure and minimum repayments and see how long it will take you to pay off your loans at the current rate. Is it months or years?
- Calculate the interest that is being added onto your accounts. If this is high then it will take you a lot longer than you think to repay that loan. If you aren’t paying any interest or charges onto the debt then it will be better for you to keep up with the repayments.
Halifax Property Review – Terraced homes increased in value by £118 per week.
Figures released today show that over the last ten years the value of a terraced home has increased by £61,489, equal to £118 per week.
In 2001 the average terraced house was worth £89,843. Fast forward to 2011 and the average terraced house is worth £151,332. This records the strongest growth in terraced properties in the past decade. Despite this, terraced houses still remain the most affordable property type on the market, being 15%below the average value of a home in the UK.
Semi-detached homes remain popular amongst buyers; over the last 10 years, these and terraced homes have accounted for almost two thirds of house sales. They are particularly popular with first time buyers as 29% chose a semi-detached home in 2011 compared to 26% in 2001.
Flats have seen the worst performance over the last 10 years with the average cost rising from £109,936 in 2001 to £163,825 in 2011, a total of 49%. Detached house purchases now account for a lower percentage of the market share, reducing from 21% of all property purchases in 2001 to 14% in 2011 as a result of fewer home buyers wanting bigger houses. However, over the same period, detached home prices have seen an increase of 56% increasing from £175,086 to £273,173.
All statistics are courtesy of Halifax, and compare house price and sales data from Quarter 2 in 2001 and Quarter 2 in 2011 and are based on Halifax’s own extensive housing statistics database.
Renovating your home Do’s and Don’ts
One of the main reasons many people seek a remortgage is due to plans of home renovation. We all dream of making a few changes here and there, never being completely satisfied with our homes.
When renovating your home it is important to make sure you don’t fall into the common pitfalls with our handy do’s and don’ts guide.
Do:
*Shop around if using a builder or tradesman and make sure that you get a few quotations before you make your decision.
*Use people that have been recommended to you, we’ve all seen the television programme Cowboy Builders!
*Make a plan of what you want to do and how much it is going to cost and stick to it.
Don’t:
*Be tempted to cut corners, if you are going to do it, do it properly.
*Get carried away, use your original plan and make sure you stick to it.
*Try and do the work yourself if it is out of your comfort zone. It can incur more costs if someone has to come and fix the problems.
Why Are You Remortgaging? The Results!
We recently conducted a survey in which we asked those visiting our site: Why are you looking to remortgage?
Many people remortgage for home renovation or debt consolidation, however some people are looking to do it for other reasons such as a dream holiday, a wedding or even to fund their children going to university.
Our survey showed that people remortgage for a whole range of reasons.
Remortgage to send children to university.
As a parent you will do all you can to provide for your children and with the current rise in higher education fees, many parents will do all they can to prevent their children getting into debt.
Remortgage for a dream holiday.
We all dream of that perfect holiday: whether it be on a desert island, a Kenyan safari or a world cruise, we can all dream!
Remortgage for your wedding.
The average wedding costs over £26,000 a sum that most people will gasp at, especially the father of the bride! For most people it will require a lot of saving and planning.
Why are you remortgaging?
Here at Remortgage Supermarket we want to know why people are coming to our site to enquire about remortgaging.
Please tell us your reasons by completing this simple survey: click here to take
What is a Remortgage?
Remortgaging is where you replace an existing mortgage with a new one, without moving home. This could be with the same lender and you just change the product or it could be with a different lender all together.
If you have equity in your property then it may be possible to release some of this and help relieve any financial strain that you may have from other debts or allow you to carry out some home improvements.
Mortgage Lending Hits 11-Month High
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have released data that shows mortgage lending in July 2011 reaching its highest level since August 2010, suggesting that the UK housing market is experiencing a cautiously optimistic outlook.
The value of UK mortgages taken out in July 2011 rose from £6.9 billion in the previous month to £7.3 billion, with the number of different mortgage products being approved in July rising from 47,800 in June 2011 to 48,800. Both value and volume figures are the highest achieved since August 2010.
Additionally, lending to first-time buyers hit highest value levels for a year (£2.3 billion) although the actual number of products taken out dropped from 18,500 in June 2011 to 18,200.
The UK housing market – while subdued – actually appears to be relatively stable. This may suggest that the Bank of England could leave the Base Rate at 0.5% for a little longer to avoid adversely agitating the market in view of rising inflation or encouraging panic activity from buyers, sellers and investors.
One interesting knock-on effect of the unchanging interest rate appears to be that the number of fixed rate mortgages are receding, apparently reflecting consumer expectation that the base interest rate will not be increased for some time yet. 60% of mortgages taken out in July 2011 were fixed rate products as opposed to 62% in June 2011. Of course, no one actually really knows when the interest rate will rise again, so you must be prepared for the inevitable rise whenever that may happen.
Information source: The CML website; http://www.cml.org.uk/cml/media/press/3045
Note:The CML takes its statistics from its members who together account for around 94% of all residential mortgage lending in the UK. The data features money actually lent rather than approved.
What is a mortgage?
Your house will probably be the biggest purchase you ever make and your mortgage is likely to be the biggest loan you ever have. Therefore it is vital that before you set off on your journey onto the property ladder you understand the process.
A mortgage is the name given to the loan which you obtain from a lender in order to finance the purchase of a property. The dictionary states a mortgage is:
“An agreement under which a person borrows money to buy a property.”
To purchase a property, you will be required to put a certain amount of money forward in the form of a deposit and the rest of the purchase price will be covered by a loan secured against the property; the mortgage. You can have the mortgage over a fixed term, 20 years for example, and you will be required to make monthly payments towards the outstanding balance until it has been paid in full.
Your monthly payments are usually determined by your mortgage amount and interest type: whether it be fixed rate or variable rate, for example.
It is always extremely important to stress the importance of keeping up the repayments on your mortgage. Failing to do so could result in serious consequences and risk you losing your home.
When you're ready to, feel free at any time to send us your details using the form on the right and we'll connect you with an expert mortgage advisor to discuss all your options. Don't forget, all of our advice is free!