Saffron back, House Prices up, Consumer confidence on the rise!

We’re delighted that the Saffron Building Society has relaunched in to the mortgage market after a few weeks rest.  The new suite of products include a 95% First Time Buyer product along with a range of other niche products such as an Expat Buy to Let, a mortgage aimed at Professionals and Contractors, a Self Build mortgage with 100% of build costs and a Buy to Let that allows light refurbishment before renting out!  All of these have no redemption penalties at any time.  Although not a house hold name, this is a really positive move from the lender and well worth a review if their products are of interest.   

The Help to Buy mortgage schemes have certainly bought back some confidence to the consumer market.  We’re also seeing some positive moves from lenders across the country as they look to help out with small deposit loans.   In addition to the Saffron previously mentioned, two other examples come from the Hanley Building Society and Cambridge Building Society.   The Hanley have reduced their 95% loan to value product interest rate by a huge 1%.  The Cambridge has now widened their product access to mortgage brokers across the whole of England allowing more people to access their 95% products. Both a welcome boost to market product offerings.

Finally, House Prices are up!  Over the year to July 2013, according to the Office of National Statistics, UK House prices had increased by 3.3%.  In London alone, there was a 9.7% increase.   Halifax said that house prices increased in August 2013 by 0.4% and Nationwide suggest in September there was an increase of 0.9%.  The average house price in England is reported to stand at £255,000 (as at July 2013).  For First Time Buyers, this is £183,000.  For sellers, Hometrack say that the average time for a property to be on the market has fallen to 7.9 weeks, the lowest for six years! 

New 95% Loan to Value aimed at First Timers

First Time Buyers have received more attention this week with The Hanley Economic Building Society being the latest to offer an attractive product to this sector.  At 95% of the property value and with a 3 year discounted rate of 4.75% (5.3% APR) and a fee of just £99 upfront and £400 on completion, this is a bold attempt from the lender to attract first timers.  Only six distributors in the UK have access to this product (AToM are one!) and I suspect funds will be utilised on this product pretty quickly for those with just a 5% deposit!  Well done The Hanley!

Leeds Building Society have also been busy in the products department and launched a 1.99% (4.5% APR) fixed rate for two years for purchase or remortgage.  They will lend up to 70% of the property value and will charge a £199 booking fee upfront and £1,800 completion fee. 

On both these products, redemption penalties will apply during the product period and terms and conditions apply!

In other news, according to creditaction, Rightmove has said new sellers raised average asking prices by 0.7% (£1,596) to an average of £233,139 in September. Prices rose 1.5% compared to September 2010.

House purchase approvals (35,226) were higher in August than in July according to the British Bankers Association, and 14% higher than in August 2010. The average loan approved for house purchase in August was £145,500 which is 1% higher than a year ago.

A moneysupermarket.com survey has found that 27% of Brits currently spend over 40% of their wages on paying off non-mortgage debt. The figures show that the average person pays off £322 every month, which is equivalent to a quarter of the average monthly income for a UK adult (currently £1,288). Even more strikingly, 8% of people say that they spend over 80% of their wages on repaying debt.

And finally, a study by Endsleigh suggests that twice as many people living in the UK are renting (45%) compared to those owning their own home (23%). Middlesex is the most popular area, with over three times as many renters (51%) as buyers (16%). It is closely followed by East Sussex (48%), Surrey (46%) and Berkshire (46%) – all of the top 10 regions for renting are in the South.  According to Endsleigh, 62% of renters intend to buy a property in the next five years.