Global chaos as Congress rejects bail-out

London and European markets are in freefall upon opening this morning, continuing a chaotic 12 hours for global indices following the rejection of the US $700bn bank bail-out package.
At 8.30am, the FTSE100 had already plunged 144.95 points, or 3%, to 4673.82. HBOS, RBS and Lloyds TSB are among the hardest hit.
Paris’ CAC is down 2.57% [...]

Mortgage lending plummets

According to the latest Bank of England data, new mortgage lending to individuals in August 2008 fell to £143 million, just 5% of net lending in July.
The 12-month growth rate slowed further, to 6.2%, and the three-month annualised growth rate fell by 1.0 percentage points to 2.6%.
Within the total, the increase in net lending secured [...]

Darling commits to action on economy

Alistair Darling has pledged to take action to address weaknesses in the financial system.
In an interview this morning with the BBC the chancellor said he would take action to promote long-term economic stability but has refused to elaborate on the specifics of his plan.
During the chat on Breakfast this morning, which was screened live from [...]

Investment advice

If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago they would now be worth £4.95
With HBOS, earlier this week your £1000 would be worth £16.50
£1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5
But if you bought £1000 worth of Tennent’s Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took [...]

HBS offers ‘create your own proc fee’ facility

Home Buyer Systems has unveiled a new facility that enables mortgage advisers to create their own procuration fee, paid to them by the customer, when recommending direct-to-lender mortgage products.
The new facility, which analyses and compares all mortgage costs including interest and fees, is now available within both the full Home Buyer System and the HBSLite [...]

“Great time” to buy property according to NAEA

The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA), the residential sales arm of the National Federation of Property Professionals (NFOPP), has called on consumers to be patient and continue to see buying a home as a sound investment.
Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the NAEA, said: “The property market has been unsteady since the start of [...]

Mortgage lending slides 12% in August

Gross mortgage lending continued to fall in August and has reached its lowest figure in more than three years. The amount of money lent for mortgages has fallen by more than a third in the past year, with the trend expected to continue.
The Council of Mortgage Lenders’ (CML) latest figures show gross lending in August [...]

30% increase in advice sought over arrears

National debt advice charity National Debtline has witnessed an increase of 30% in the number of callers in the last 12 months seeking advice on first charge mortgage arrears.
The charity has also reported a 22% increase in the number of callers with second charge mortgage arrears comparing the three months to August 2008 with the [...]

Large rise in interest for joint homebuying

SmartSharedHomes.com has seen a 30% increase in buyers searching for a ‘property partner’ in the last three months.
SmartSharedHomes.com looks to help match people with other homebuyers to jointly purchase a new home, to tackle the issue of large deposits now required.
SmartSharedHomes.com cites reports which suggest that taking into consideration, the average deposit, stamp duty and [...]

Variable rates gain popularity

35% of residential borrowers took variable rate mortgages over the past three months, up from 24% last quarter, according to Legal & General research.
However, residential borrowers still prefer fixed rates overall – 63% took fixed rates, down from 75% last quarter.
Buy-to-let borrowers prefer variable rates – 55% took this type of mortgage vs. 43% on [...]