Lifetime mortgages (often known as equity release) are loans that are taken out by people who are age fifty five or older. The loans are secured on their house and typically, no payments are made. The loan is allowed to…
Is it the help to buy scheme or help to stay in go
The help to buy scheme is undoubtedly a good thing for potential home buyers and home movers who wouldn’t otherwise be able to obtain the mortgage they need. The potential negative knock on affects on the rest of the…
The Rate Debate and Implications for the Housing M
Mark Carney the governor of the Bank of England has attempted to push back expectations of interest rates rising by indicating that he is going to link rate rises to unemployment. He says that he wishes to give forward…
Help to Buy Brought Forward
The government has brought forward its second phase of its Help to Buy Scheme from January 2014 to starting right now. Briefly, the Help to Buy Scheme now being launched is not like the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme…
Old Problems, New Solutions?
A new lender Castle Trust has just launched into the buy-to-let market with an innovative product. The product is, at the moment, only available as a second charge on existing mortgages, but the lender is promising a purchase product in…
The Smart(phone) way of buying a house
The way we go about buying houses has changed dramatically in recent years. Very quickly the internet took over from the estate agents’ shop windows as our first point of enquiry. Now the next revolution in buying homes is…
Do your Homework if you’re Buying Abroad
Now summer has been and gone, and it’s starting to get a bit colder, many of us again begin to dream of living in a hot country. Unless you are of retirement age, don’t have any dependants and you…
An Alternative Pension Plan
Many people turn to property investment as a way of saving for their retirement. An example of a landlord’s life story could be to buy their first home to live in, around their 20s, perhaps sell that and move…
Help to Buy Phase Two
Innovative Lending
After the banking collapses that have occurred over the last few years, any mention of innovation from lenders has automatically been linked with increased risk. However, slowly innovation is creeping back into the market with lenders focussing on being smarter…