AToM Mortgage Blog

AToM attended the Mortgage Strategy annual awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane last week. These awards are the ‘Oscars’ of the mortgage world and an opportunity for those who have managed to survive the incredibly tough climate in the mortgage market, to meet and be recognised. I was aware that AToM had been short-listed but was pleasantly shocked to hear the host, Alun Cochrane (8 out of 10 Cats) announce to the 650 attendees, that the award for “Best Specialist Distributor 2010” goes to…….. AToM! Wow! Two major industry awards in the same week with the latter being the big one! Superb news and really well deserved by all the team at AToM.

Coming back down to earth with a bump, other news this week reveals lenders look like they are starting to enter into price wars. BMSolutions (part of Lloyds Banking Group) recently reduced their Buy to Let rates and, only a few days later, The Mortgage Works (Nationwide) also reduced theirs. These two lenders probably write the majority of Buy to Let mortgages currently and, with both owned by larger organisations, this shows that their appetite in the investment property arena is warming up. Without doubt, there is a huge rental market out there and this is enhanced as more first time buyers struggle to raise deposits to purchase their first properties. With no other options, renting becomes their priority whilst trying to save deposits.

With this in mind, the Council of Mortgage Lenders this week released a report indicating that 80% of all under 30 year olds now need financial help from parents or relatives to make that first step on to the property ladder. With today’s first time buyer needing around £34k deposit, which also tends to be the average annual household income, there seems to be no end in sight for the first time buyer and their ambition to get onto the property market. Whilst there remains no remedy or demonstrable assistance from lenders, the Buy to Let market will continue to flourish.

Labels: all types of mortgages, buy to let, council of mortgage lenders, lenders, mortgages, oscar

Two weeks into the working year and the mortgage market is looking incredibly positive! Many lenders, including Abbey, Chelsea, Coventry, Halifax and Nationwide have reduced their fixed rates recently. Others have increased the amount you can borrow against the value of the property and another lender has launched an 80% tracker rate with no redemption penalties, meaning you can leave when you like at no extra cost. It appears the active lenders are becoming somewhat nervous at the ‘alleged’ number of applications received by the FSA from prospective new lenders as well as the competitiveness appearing between those already there! As a result, increasing market share has become priority and lower rates and competitive products can only be good for all!

We have also noticed a number of lenders becoming somewhat more relaxed in arranging mortgages that don’t fit the normal credit score mould. Some while ago, I mentioned that AToM had re-launched its ‘Complex Prime’ proposition. Complex Prime looks at applications which, ‘for whatever reason’ do not fit the normal high street mentality or need something of a more complex underwriting nature. A short list of examples include applicants with no credit, too much credit, a desire to pay up front or add additional security in the form of another property increasing their ability to borrow more. We have five lenders on our panel already looking exclusively at this scenario for AToM. One has awarded AToM a £10m tranche of funds, so there is no better time to visit our offices in the Carfax, Horsham, to see how we can assist you.

Finally, why not visit our website at www.atomltd.co.uk and review all of our financial offerings. These range from the ability to apply online for mortgages from the whole of market, secured loans, credit cards, right up to switching your mobile phone, gas and electricity bills or simply to review your current insurances. Give it a try, you’ve got nothing to lose, but a possibly a lot to save!

Labels: all types of mortgages, complex prime, council of mortgage lenders, mortgages

02/10/09 - The Land Registry has confirmed this week that house prices decreased in August by 0.1%. Slightly unsurprising news as their data is from property sales some months previous. However it is also stark reality that despite signs we are on the way out of recession, the market recovery is going to be slow and enduring!

In fact, Creditaction figures for October report that the average Brit is just £155 away from a money meltdown. 12m Brits (25%) are currently struggling to cope with their monthly bills and 39% of people would be in trouble if they had to find just £50 extra each month. Essential bills now equate to £1,378 on average each month per person and £2,001 for families.

House purchase mortgage approval numbers for August were 81.4% higher than a year ago, despite data from the Bank of England confirming that 20% of all applications for mortgages for house purchase by major UK lenders were rejected!

The average current Mortgage Interest rate is reported to be 3.58%. The average house price in the UK in July 2009 for first time buyers was £143,454 which is an annual decrease of – 9.1%.

There were 11,400 cases of house possession (equivalent to one mortgage in 1,000) in the second quarter of 2009. According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, this equates to 125 properties being repossessed every day or 1 property being repossessed every 11.5 minutes.

UK house prices will not reach their autumn 2007 peaks for at least another five years, according to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club. They also expect that house prices will fall again in the first half of 2010.

So, where is the good news? Well, AToM have experienced a 22% upturn in new enquiries over the last month. We have been able to secure products for more than 80% of applicants and this is a dramatic increase. We are experiencing more flexible underwriting from a number of mortgage lenders and the signs are that interest rates for fixed term products are reducing again. All the more reason to visit us to discuss your personal mortgage requirements.

Labels: all types of mortgages, council of mortgage lenders, flexible underwriting, lenders

Not only is it a great time to buy, but remortgaging is becoming attractive too. There are some very competitive 3-10 year fixed rates available and the continued uncertainty in the financial markets is causing borrowers to review and stabilise outgoings longer term.

A few weeks back, I mentioned that fixed rates were set to increase and they are showing signs of doing so! Woolwich have increased their 3, 4 and 5 year fixed rates by up to 0.40% yet, at the same time, have reduced 2 year fixed and tracker rates by some 0.30%. Interesting, as general costs to lenders acquiring fixed rate monies (swap rates) had decreased! Yorkshire Building Society also increased fixed rates by 0.40% for loans exceeding 75% of property value. If this is the sign of things to come, then a trip to AToM in the very near future could be a financial masterstroke!

The Council of Mortgage Lenders estimates that 900,000 homes are in negative equity (house value lower than mortgage balance) and that prices have fallen around 16pc during the past year, although this figure might be open to question! Notwithstanding this, some lenders are showing a willingness to assist. Halifax and Bank of Scotland (members of Lloyds Banking Group) are offering 95% loans to selected remortgage customers and up to 120% of the property value in certain cases. You won’t find these schemes advertised as they are discreet offerings to existing customers. However, anything which helps stimulate the market is encouraging.

Halifax have also launched a scheme where they will pay 50% of your first years council tax bill (to £1,000) to attract first time buyers (available until 23/5/09 - conditions apply).

Continuing the “good news”, mortgage products now available increased to 3,700 in March, a 25% increase on February. And there’s more! Lombard Street Research declared that housing is now affordable and the slump will be over by Christmas!

And finally…The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) says. "The UK recession was more extreme than expected during the first three months of 2009, but the worst is now behind us. The recession is expected to last until the end of 2009 with sluggish growth resuming in Q2 2010. The Bank of England is expected to start raising the UK Bank Base Rate from its current 0.5% level in spring 2010.”

As I started, so will I finish…Buy now…Fix now!

Labels: all types of mortgages, council of mortgage lenders, fixed rate mortgage, halifax, mortgages, Woolwich

This weeks announcement from the Council of Mortgage Lenders advises that mortgage lending figures for February were down some 60% against the same time last year. Hardly surprising when available products had dropped some 85% in the same period and most lenders criteria has changed dramatically! Due to the continued pressures that lenders are placed under, they are finding many ways to refuse applications, even for those with large deposits and good credit ratings. In addition, some high street lenders have recently reduced their maximum loan amounts to £250k, and others lending above £500k are charging an additional 1% per annum for the increased “risk”!
The US government recently announced plans to buy over $1trillion of toxic mortgages from struggling US banks. Mortgages that should not have been granted in the first place and were always unlikely to be paid consistently by the consumer. No surprise there then! However, this is a positive move forward and is intended to stimulate US lenders in to funding again albeit supported by the public sector!
In contrast, the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) are expected to announce plans to look at restricting the amount of mortgage loans advanced to consumers by capping income multiples. Only 2 years ago you could obtain a mortgage loan at 6 to 8 times your income, depending on your status. This has already reduced to the 4 to 5 level but is heavily reliant on the computer not saying “no”! The new plans are to restrict lending to just 3 times income….
This is partly justified by recent reports from the FSA that mortgage arrears are up 31% for the last quarter of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. It’s interesting to note that arrears statistics are only reported when the mortgage account reaches 1.5% of the balance. So, on a £100,000 mortgage, the account needs to be in arrears of £1,500. Therefore, the true picture of mortgage arrears is probably substantially higher.
With an average house price in the south east of £248k (BBC statistics) and borrowing at 75% loan to value on 3 times income, you will need to prove annual income of £62k! The days of mortgage rationing are looking more like reality!
Following the success of our Mortgage Clinic we are holding another on Saturday 4th April, from 9am to 2pm, at our North Street office, Horsham. Please do come along!

Labels: all types of mortgages, council of mortgage lenders, credit action, fsa, mortgages, rationing