Nearly half a million Brits missed at least one monthly repayment on their mortgage in the past six months, new research has suggested. MoneyExpert.com said some 463,000 people – or four per cent of all homeowners with outstanding mortgages – have failed to meet at least one payment deadline on their home since July 2007.… Read more

Mortgage lending is down to its lowest level in two years and there is no indication the market will pick up any time soon, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has said. The total value of home loans fell 25 per cent in December to reach £22.6 billion, its lowest level since May 2005. That… Read more

House prices in the UK are falling as fast today as they did during the property crash of the early 1990s, according to one new report. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has said the number of estate agents reporting falling prices is now at its highest level since 1992, when Britain was in… Read more

Green mortgages remain a niche product and are not expected to revolutionise the property market in 2008, one major building society has said. Norwich and Peterborough noted that the mortgages – which offer discounted rates as an incentive for installing energy efficient technologies – have already been available for ten years and have so far… Read more

Most novice landlords see their roles as a profitable pastime, while only four per cent see it as a full-time profession, according to a new survey from Alliance & Leicester. The firms new annual Landlord Index has revealed that more than half of todays landlords admit their buy-to-let property investments are there to build up… Read more

Mortgage lenders in the UK are continuing to tighten their belts and lending criteria, taking a more cautious approach to the market. Experts from market analyst Moneyfacts has explained that lenders are reducing their maximum loan to values as the credit crunch continues to hit home in the UK. “Moneyfacts has found that since the… Read more

Property experts are insisting that the credit crunch has done little to stall the self-certification mortgage market over the last few months. Although the crisis is seeing banks become stricter on lending criteria, the availability of self-cert loans has not diminished, it has been claimed. Andy Pratt, spokesman for independent mortgage advisor Alexander Hall, said:… Read more

The high end mortgage market has remained unaffected the credit crunch, one leading property firm has said. Investec says that over the last couple of years this end of the property sector has seen “significant growth” and remains “stable and “resilient”. Spokesman for the firm Andrew Arlott said: “With market conditions as they are at… Read more

British homeseekers are bringing forward their plans to buy a property and take out a mortgage in 2008, according to new reports. A survey by Fool.co.uk has found that as many as one in ten people who intend to buy a house this year are bringing forward their plans. The report also predicted that there… Read more

The British mortgage market is continuing to ape global trends caused by the credit crunch and approvals have hit a seven-month low. Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have revealed that the value of new home loans dropped to £12.2 billion, with remortgages facing an even steeper drop. Total mortgage lending in November… Read more