Archive for the ‘Finance News’ Category
Monday, March 28th, 2011
Remortgaging continues to grow, while overall mortgage lending remains subdued – that’s according to figures from the BBA (British Bankers’ Association).
Continuing speculation about a rise in Bank of England base rate is thought to have encouraged more borrowers to consider remortgaging and the option of a fixed-rate deal in particular. Some homeowners have also sought to take advantage of interest rates at historically low levels, to re-gear household finances and minimize monthly repayments.
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Tags: Headlines, Housing Market, Industry
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Thursday, March 24th, 2011
George Osborne claimed to have “put fuel in the tank of the British economy” in a Budget said to contain help for families and businesses alike.
The Chancellor surprised commentators and wrong footed his opponents by knocking 1p off a litre of fuel, as well as postponing the 5p increase due under the fuel duty escalator. Introducing what he described as a “fair fuel stabiliser”, he announced a £2 billion-plus raid on the profits from North Sea oil and gas to pay for it.
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Tags: Economy, Headlines, Politics
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Monday, March 21st, 2011
Chancellor George Osborne is being urged to re-think stamp duty in the run up to the Budget next week.
Stamp duty of 1% is payable by purchasers if the price of their new property is more than £125,000 – and at higher rates further up the scale, with thresholds at £250,000 and £500,000.
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Tags: Business, Companies, Economy
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Monday, March 14th, 2011
A highly regarded monthly survey paints an encouraging picture of the housing market in England and Wales.
The latest LSL /Acadametrics House Price Index shows that prices rose by 0.3% during February, equating to an increase of £657 in the value of the average property. The number of transactions increased by 2.4% to 41,200 – although that’s still almost 40% down on the long-term average.
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Tags: Business, Markets, Mortgage Rates
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Thursday, March 10th, 2011
Is there light at the end of the tunnel for first time buyers? In recent years, restrictions on mortgage lending have made taking that first step on the property ladder all but impossible for many. Now there are some signs of improvement.
A big factor has been the size of the deposits demanded by lenders – the average has risen from 10% to 21% of a property’s value, according to Nationwide. Now the number of mortgage deals requiring just 10% is on the up. Figures from Moneyfacts show that, whereas last year there were fewer than 150 mortgage deals which offered to lend 90% of a property’s value, there are currently more than 200. But that’s only a fraction of what was on offer before the Credit Crunch.
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Tags: Economy, Industry, Markets
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Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
There are some signs of vitality in the property market, but with wide variations across the country – that’s the picture which emerges from the latest housing market survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
According to the majority of surveyors, prices were unchanged in February. Among the rest, more reported that property prices were falling than rising – but by a margin which is the narrowest since July last year. The number of sales agreed stabilised, while the number of new instructions rose slightly.
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Tags: Economy, Headlines, Housing Market
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Tuesday, March 8th, 2011
Average interest rates on tracker deals have dropped to their lowest level in decades, according to Moneyfacts. The financial comparison site says that the average rate for a two year tracker is now 3.40% – the lowest since they began monitoring rates in1988.
With a tracker, the mortgage interest rate rises or falls along with another interest rate – typically Bank of England base rate. In recent years, that’s meant lower payments for many borrowers, with tracker deals shadowing a Bank of England rate which plummeted to a record low of 0.5%.
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Tags: Companies, Economy, Industry
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Monday, March 7th, 2011
“It is clear that at some point bank rate will have to go up”. The words of Bank of England Governor Mervyn King. But when – that is the question.
According to some analysts, the balance has tilted back against an immediate rate rise in recent days. That is because of the state of the economy. With retailers voicing fears of a second bout of recession, growth and jobs have moved back to the centre of the political battleground.
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Tags: Headlines, Industry, Mortgage Rates
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Friday, February 25th, 2011
Deutsche Bank has been fined and told to pay compensation to customers for irresponsible lending practices. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has levied the fine of £840,000 on DB Mortgages, which no longer provides new loans. The sum includes a 30% discount for cooperating with the investigation.
The lender will also pay out some £1.5 million pounds in compensation, under a programme aimed at up to 8,000 customers.
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Tags: Business, Companies, Headlines
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Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Mortgage finance is still hard to come by – but there are signs of a return to something like normality. That’s the message from latest figures issued by the Council of Mortgage lenders, which show that gross lending totalled an estimated £9.2 billion in January.
That represents a fall of 13% from the £10.6 billion lent in December. Compared with January last year, however, the figures show a rise of some 5%.
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Tags: Economy, GoRemortgage, Housing Market
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