UK NEWS

HOUSE PRICES AND MORTGAGE RATES TEMPT BUYERS

House prices and mortgage rates tempt buyers

Friday November 20,2009

By Daily Express Reporter

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(3)

HOUSE price rises and record low interest rates tempted buyers to take out mortgages worth £13.5billion last month, new figures showed yesterday.

The five per cent rise – up from £12.9billion in September – is in line with increases in October during the past decade, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. Separate figures from the Bank of England also showed total mortgage advances up during the month as purchasers try to move in before Christmas.

Brian Murphy, of the Mortgage Advice Bureau, said: “These latest figures are encouraging and a reflection of market conditions becoming slightly more favourable. The number of mortgage deals on the market has increased by 43 per cent as lenders appear to have rediscovered their appetite for lending.”

Paul Samter, CML economist, said: “House purchase activity has picked up significantly. In contrast, remortgaging has dropped to decade-low levels.”

HOUSE PRICES

20.11.09, 7:48pm

I have to agree with the CML.

In our street, houses that were on the market for $120K a month ago are now selling at half a million pounds a time.

And the buyers are flying in to pick them up before they rise further.

The buyers, apparently from Disney World, are flying in from Florida on pigs, as they are much faster than the bog standard 747, so they get here before the mass of people just dying to buy a British property.

This is a true story. It must be true, I got it from the press office of Number 10.

• Posted by: tiff • Report Comment

THE FIGURES FROM THE CML ARE NOT ENCOURAGING

20.11.09, 9:59am

The 5% rise is just a seasonal blip. The year on year gross lending comparison looks much worse.

I run a software house for mortgage lenders and I'm not surprised gross lending isn't higher.

The FSA needs to stop deterring new entrants coming to the market. Alistair Darling can’t tell the House of Commons that greater banking competition is one of the government’s main economic objectives – then let the FSA behave this way.

The mortgage market review didn’t help existing lenders either. The FSA needs to start making headway now and react to the market much more quickly if it wants to move into 2010 in a strong position.

The volumes of transactions in the market over the next few months are going to be so low as to make meaningful comparisons nearly impossible. What is clear is that, in the future, we will have to realign our expectations and look at the underlying data - excluding remortgages as there is little if any appetite for refinancing at the moment.

Paul Hunt, MD of Phoebus Software

• Posted by: hs97jhs • Report Comment

MORTGAGES

20.11.09, 8:40am

With interest rates about to rise, inflation about to burst on the scene, taxes to increase, the great British unwashed decide to load themselves up with more debt than it can afford and the whole debt roundabout will start all over again.

• Posted by: albert9rn • Report Comment