Some eye watering statistics from The Money Charity this
week. The Charity has reported that
total mortgage lending stood at £1.35 trillion at the end of September. This is up from £1.275 trillion in 2015. Averaged over the 11.1m households with a
mortgage equates to £118,693 in September.
The average interest rate was 2.74% and according to The
Council of Mortgage Lenders, the average for new loans was 2.27%. They also suggested that the average First
Time Buyer deposit was 15% (£28k in July) and the average house price amounted
to £184k (August) for first timers. Yet
First Time Buyers borrowed on average just 3.45 times their income!
There were 40,533 loans approved for house purchase in
September, according to the British Bankers Association, similar numbers to a
year earlier. The average loan approved
was circa £176k.
This is interesting as it is a common knowledge that owning
a home can be cheaper than renting. The
report goes on to suggest that inclusive of all benefits, private renters spent
an average of 43% of their income on rental payments. In comparison, owner occupiers spent on
average 19% of income.
And as we enter the run up to Christmas, it's also useful to
note that the average interest rate on credit card lending in September was
18.49%, which is 18.24% above the Bank of England Base Rate of 0.25%! Remember, doesn't matter which type of
credit you use to fund seasonal spends, at some point they all need to be
repaid!
And finally, a number of lenders including Platform (Part of
Co-op), Virgin Money, Nationwide, Coventry Building Society, Barclays, Halifax
and TSB have all changed rates in the last ten days. The majority with rate cuts and attractive
options for new customers including cash back for purchases and free valuation
and free legals on remortgages. There
are certainly some fantastic deals available in the current climates. So if you are thinking of reviewing your
mortgage options, now might just be a good time to find that paperwork!
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