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UK home owners increasingly looking to remortgage to a better fixed deal
Up to one in six UK home owners are considering remortgaging over the next six months as the ongoing mortgage price wars cut rates, new research has found. They are targeting average savings of £99 a month, equivalent to £1,188 a year, according to the study by The Nottingham Building Society Nottingham. This comes as Council of Mortgage Lenders figures show that lending for remortgaging increased 15% month on month in recent data and industry experts are forecasting a surge in remortgaging in response to recent rate cuts which have seen five year fixed rates drop below 2%. The Nottingham's research shows five year fixes are the most popular choice for customers considering remortgaging and 27% of potential remortgaging customers would choose a five year fix and 21% a two year fix. The research shows strong demand for fixed rate deals as around three quarters of those considering remortgaging would choose a fixed rate deal. The study found 12% would ideally fix for longer than five years. Just 7% of those surveyed would choose tracker rates while 4% would consider discount deals and 7% say they would choose a standard variable rate. ‘The mortgage price war is interesting to existing home owners who are keen to take advantage of the record low rates. With interest rates expected to rise in the coming years then now could well be the right time for many to consider whether there are savings to be had,’ said Ian Gibbons, senior mortgage broking manager for Nottingham Mortgage Services. ‘Potentially savings are higher than the average £99 a month people are looking for. Someone with a £150,000 mortgage who moved from a deal at 4% to one at 2% could be around £3,000 a year better off,’ he explained. ‘However, to secure the best remortgage deal it is important to look at more than the base rate. You need to search the whole market and to be aware of the product fees that may be charged. A great rate won't save you much if you have to pay a high fee,’ he added. Continue reading
First time buyers in UK need bigger deposits despite Help to Buy scheme
First time buyers in the UK need a £32,000 deposit to buy their first home as average deposits rise to their highest level in a year, new research shows. Despite Help to Buy providing those with small deposits access to high value LTV mortgages, lending is actually decreasing with the average deposit size up from a low of 16% in October last year to 20% or £31,807 now. The analysis found June’s average deposit of 20% to be the same figure as two years ago) before Help to Buy was introduced. Factoring in house price increases over the last two years also means that in monetary terms, the average deposit has risen by 9%, or £2,557, up from £29,250. The Genworth/Moneyfacts study also shows that current average deposit size is equal to 81% of an average first time buyer’s annual income of £39,065 highlighting the difficulty faced in saving such a substantial amount. Across all buyers, the average LTV for house purchase loans also dropped by 2%, from 77% in May to 75% in June. An average deposit of 25% is therefore required as access to high LTV lending impacts not only first time buyers but also those hoping to move up the property ladder. The research also shows that limited access to high LTV lending across all mortgages heightens the challenge for first time buyers in fulfilling their ambitions of home ownership. The study suggest that already a lack of housing supply is crippling the first time buyer market and making it harder for people hoping to move up the property ladder also means that typical first time buyer properties are not being freed up as often as they should. The price gap between 75% and 95% LTV mortgages has narrowed since the start of the year as a result of lower interest rates over the last few months. In January 2015 the price differential was 71% but has since fallen to 69%. However, this remains very high and means those who are unable to save for a larger deposit are faced with charges 69% higher than those who have access to a 25% deposit. On an average first time buyer property of £159,053, those with a 25% deposit pay a monthly fixed payment of just £500, compared to £846 for those with a 5% deposit, a difference of £346. Similarly, the fixed term cost for buyers with a 95% LTV mortgage is £20,307 and just £12,000 for those with a 75% LTV mortgage, a difference of £8,307 or 69%. The report says that as further evidence of the dominance of low LTV lending, the number of products available for those with larger deposits grew faster than the number of new high LTV products; the number of available products at 75% and 80% LTV rose by 280 and 200 respectively in the year to August… Continue reading
Property sales in Canada up slightly month on month, latest data shows
Residential sales in Canada increased slightly by 0.3% month on month in August and transactions were up 4% compared to a year ago, the latest index shows. The data from the Canadian Real Estate Association also shows that the number of newly listed homes for sale increased by 0.5% while prices are up 8.7% year on year but this drops to 4.2% when Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto are taken out of the calculation. ‘August marked the fourth month in a row for strong and stable national sales activity, While home prices increased in British Columbia and in the Greater Toronto area, they have been holding fairly steady in many other parts of the country for some time now,’ said CREA President Pauline Aunger. The figures also shows that prices continue to rise in Ontario and British Columbia, where listings are either in short supply or heading in that direction. August also provided early evidence that modest price growth is re-emerging in some markets in Quebec and New Brunswick. ‘The continuation of low interest rates is supporting home sales and price trends, and is likely to keep doing so for some time,’ said Gregory Klump, CREA’s chief economist. Actual activity in August was up 4% from the same month last year and it was the third highest August sales figure on record after 2005 and 2007, and 6.6% above the 10 year average for August. Actual sales were up from year ago levels in a little over 60% of all local markets, led by the lower mainland region of British Columbia and the Greater Toronto Area. Sales in Calgary continued to post the largest year on year declines after having run near record levels there last year. The number of months of inventory, regarded as an important measure of the balance between housing supply and demand, was 5.6 on a national basis at the end of August, unchanged from the previous three months and holding at a three year low. Year on year price growth picked up in August for all home types tracked by the index with the exception of townhouse/row units. Two storey single family homes continue to post the biggest year on year price rise at 8.85% followed by single storey single family homes at 6.09%, townhouse/row units at 4.29% and apartment units up 3.08%. Year on year price growth varied among housing markets tracked by the index. Greater Vancouver with growth of 11.96% and Greater Toronto up 9.99%, continue to post by far the biggest year on year price increases. By comparison, year on year price growth in the Fraser Valley was 7% while Victoria and Vancouver Island recorded 5% growth. Prices in Calgary were flat on a year on year basis, the first month since September 2011 of no annual price growth while prices in Saskatoon also ran roughly even with year ago levels. Elsewhere, home prices were up from August 2014 levels by 1.5% in Ottawa but fell by… Continue reading
