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Homeowners can now fix a mortgage for five years for less than 1.5%. Santander has launched a 1.5% five-year fix for borrowers with a 40% deposit, while Skipton Building Society has unveiled a 1.45% deal with the same deposit. Both deals are open to new buyers and remortgagers alike. "These latest reductions make a huge statement in the interest-rate war”, said Andrew Montlake, director of mortgage broker Coreco.
The Sunday Times (03/11/2019)
Proportunity,a lender which offers first-time buyers loans to help them top up their deposits and access better mortgage rates, has used its data to rank every London borough in terms of its potential Brexit resilience. East London tops the chart, with Tower Hamlets coming out on top. The characteristics that put these locations in pole position included having a below average percentage of new-builds; a large millennial population; proximity to well-used transport links and higher than average flat prices. The locations deemed most vulnerable to a house price crash were all in outer London, and tended to have larger homes and lower house prices.
City AM (31/10/2019)
Property chiefs upset amid the continuing political and economic uncertainty have urged whichever party wins the general election on December 12th to make a swift Brexit decision to save the housing market. Weston Homes' boss Bob Weston said he hopes the election “puts uncertainty to an end one way or the other”. Geoffrey Lander, chairman of property law firm Davitt Jones Bould, urged: “The dinner-party chat I hear is whether we remain in or leave the EU is less important than a decision being taken so we can all move on.”
Evening Standard (30/10/2019)
The Government should abolish or reform “eye-watering” stamp duty to stimulate house building and encourage people to buy their own homes, a think tank has said. Stamp duty is the second most unpopular tax in the UK, after inheritance tax, and sees the average buyer in England pay £2,300 in duty when they purchase a property. A report from the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) has called on the Conservatives to reform the levy by either abolishing it or reducing it under a new system that would charge 4% on a property valued above £500,000 and 5% on one with a value above £1m. Robert Colvile, director of the CPS, said: “Stamp duty rates are not just punishing people for moving home, but actively deterring them.”
The Sunday Telegraph (27/10/2019) The Sunday Times (27/10/2019)
The latest figures from the Bank of England have shown that mortgage approvals were up last month as buyers sought to complete purchases before the October 31st deadline mooted for Brexit. Some 65,919 mortgages for house purchases were approved in September, up from a three-month low of 65,681 in August.
City AM (30/10/2019) The Times (30/10/2019)
Figures from the Nationwide show that the price of the average home increased by £800 in the last 12 months. Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist, said that average house prices had risen by £800 over the past 12 months to £215,368, a sharp slowdown compared with the year to October 2016, when prices jumped by £9,100. “The underlying pace of growth appears to have slowed as a result of weaker global growth and an intensifying of Brexit uncertainty,” he said.
BBC News (29/10/2019) The Times (30/10/2019)