Visits to property website up 7% on January 2019.

I’ve just read that visits to Rightmove surpassed 150 million for the first time in January, making it the busiest month ever recorded. There were said to be over 152 million visits to the property portal in January, a 7% increase on January 2019. The top five busiest days ever on Rightmove were all said to be between 21st and 29^th  January, with Wednesday 29^th topping the list. There were reported to be over 5.7 million visits on that day, up 9% on the previous record set back on 24^th April 2019. Time spent by home hunters on the site was up 4%, with people spending a total of 1.17 billion minutes on there.

These are pretty remarkable numbers and ones that will hopefully relate into the prospect of rising activity levels, especially in the lead up to a usually active late Winter/early Spring period.

Unless you are incredibly lucky, you’re probably going to need a mortgage to buy your dream home.  A mortgage is the biggest debt you’re likely to ever take on, so you need to do your homework and understand more than just what the national press decide to publish about the Bank of England base rate being held at 0.75% again, or how much profit the banks are currently making! Or what a mate says in the pub!

Advice is crucial and ideally from a company who can offer ‘whole of market’ mortgages, not just products from a limited panel of lenders, like some Estate Agency chains or a Bank/Building Society who only offer their own or a limited set of products.

I guess what I am saying is think before you agree to use any in-house service of this type as overall, it may not always be in your best interests, and as this is the largest financial transaction you will be involved in at the time, it is important to feel comfortable about it.  Also, to have some independence in the event of any concerns or disputes makes great sense.

Finally, make sure you ask questions!  For example, if you’re not being offered ‘whole of market’ products and instead are being offered mortgage products from a ‘limited panel of lenders’, you may be missing out on the best product available to you. You are, after all, in the driving seat.

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.