Mortgage approvals on the increase.

30/4/10 - Mortgage and financial markets are rife with news. Here is a quick review of those items which might be of interest:
Some 34,905 mortgages were approved in April, a slight increase on the March 33,360 figure according to the latest figures from the British Bankers Association. It suggests that the effect of the year-end change to Stamp Duty has now worked through, so although numbers appear subdued compared to the latter months of last year, house purchase approvals were 20% higher than in March last year.
The Financial Services Authority has found weaknesses in five banks over their handling of customer complaints and has referred two of the banks to enforcement for further investigation. The review looked at several banking groups responsible for over 70% of the complaints firms received and reported to the FSA and over 60% of those resolved by the Financial Ombudsman Service. Incidentally, the Daily Mail recently reported that one lender received over 1600 complaints every day between July and December last year!
Almost two-thirds of borrowers on tracker rate mortgages have failed to take advantage of low interest rates to overpay their mortgages, says unbiased.co.uk. Their research shows that 63% of borrowers have not overpaid even though charging rates are usually much lower than historically. The previous figure was 53% of borrowers in May 2009. Only 11% indicated that they were making occasional payments on top of current monthly payments.
Finally, Investec Specialist Private Bank says that increased lending restrictions from banks and building societies has resulted in a growing number of high net worth individuals finding it difficult to secure mortgages of £1m or more. It says many of these people are successful entrepreneurs who are being refused credit because their finances and wealth are not straightforward, and often other lenders are bound by rigid lending criteria which do not accommodate this. This is exactly the type of customer that can be helped by the smaller, specialist lenders who are not necessarily household names. Some private banks are really keen on this type of borrower as long as they can prove affordability beyond doubt. It is worth checking with your local and independent mortgage brokerage as they will have access to such institutions.