Chester Mortgage Brokers

Mortgage approvals increase in March ahead of expected base rate rise Approvals for residential home loans jumped 18% compared to February, according to Bank of England data - but some fear mortgage rates may rise again.

Criteria searches reveal tighter budgets: Knowledge Bank – Mortgage Strategy Knowledge Bank’s monthly criteria index revealed a host of changes in broker’s top five criteria searches, pointing to tighter household budgets, as they try to place client’s cases with lenders. In the residential category, brokers searching for lenders who accept ‘late or missed payments.....

Renters Reform Bill to be published next week: Gove – Mortgage Strategy The government’s long-awaited Renters Reform Bill will be published next week, housing secretary Michael Gove confirmed. The legislation will "change the way in which the relationship between landlords and tenants work, providing tenants with new protection which should ensure they are better prot...

MBA: Nicola McKenzie, private client services manager, Dunham McCarthy – Mortgage Strategy It is becoming increasingly important for mortgage brokers to embrace protection. Not because the market is depressed and protection represents a significant income stream. And not because of the new Consumer Duty. But because our clients need protecting. Brokers have a responsibility to ensure thei...

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PMS Mortgage Club adds Cirencester Friendly to panel – Mortgage Strategy PMS Mortgage Club, has enhanced its protection offering by adding Cirencester Friendly as one of its partner firms. Members will now get access to the mutual firm's range of income protection products, covering up to 65% of a customer’s income should they become unable to work due to illness or in...

FCA boosts whistleblowing rules – Mortgage Strategy The Financial Conduct Authority has set out how it plans to improve the confidence of whistleblowers hand over information to the regulator. The watchdog says it will provide whistleblowers with more detail on what has been done with the information provided -- and its reasons for taking, or not tak...

Strong rise in mortgage approvals in March: BoE – Mortgage Strategy The number of mortgages for house purchase rose strongly in March, hitting 52,000 according to the latest Bank of England (BoE) figures. This is a significant increase on the 44,100 approvals recorded in February, indicating confidence is slowly returning to the housing market, after figures fell fo...

Hometrack launches database for property professionals – Mortgage Strategy Hometrack has launched a new database, which it says lists the latest information on asking prices, rental yields, sales agreed and core property attributes. The valuations firm Property Listings Data runs on Zoopla data and is aimed at lenders, developers, investors insurers and utility firms. It s...

VAS Panel launches new service for £5m-plus valuations – Mortgage Strategy VAS Panel has launched a service that provides an additional audit overview of valuations for properties believed to be worth more than £5m. Called 'QC+', the service, which is delivered by one of VAS’s dedicated chartered surveyors, builds on the company’s existing audit procedures which revie...

Is Michael Gove right - are UK new-build homes just too ugly? The minister is being taken to court by Berkeley Homes after he blocked its 165-home development in Crane Valley, Kent, raising questions over what new homes should look like.

Should I wait for mortgage rates to fall before buying my first home? My monthly outgoings will go up significantly if I get on the housing ladder. Should I hold off and see if mortgages become cheaper, and when might this happen?

New home registrations tumble 40% in Q1: NHBC – Mortgage Strategy The number of new homes registered to be built tumbled 40% to 27,673 in the first three months of the year compared to 12 months ago, data from the National House Building Council shows, with worst figures for private sector building. Housebuilding firms posted 17,953 registrations in the period, a....

Brokers positive on business volumes for year – Pepper Money – Mortgage Strategy Mortgage brokers remain positive about the outlook for their business volumes in the next 12 months, despite the challenging economic environment. This is according to new research from specialist lender Pepper Money, resulting from a survey of more than 500 brokers. It found that 41% think their bu...

Black & White appoints Tyler as director of intermediaries – Mortgage Strategy Black & White has hired Adam Tyler as director of intermediaries to lead the specialist lender’s new business development. Industry veteran Tyler joins the business after founding the specialist property finance industry trade body Financial Intermediary & Brokers Association as its executive chai...

Day in the Life of... Alison Ferguson, underwriting and customer outcomes, Leeds – Mortgage Strategy My alarm goes off at… ...between 6am and 7am, depending on whether I’m in the office or working from home. I tend to steal an extra hour in bed when working from home, which is the best part of hybrid working, in my opinion. On the days that I head into the office, I get ready, prepare my lunch ...

Growth slows to 3%, ‘worst house price falls behind us’: Zoopla – Mortgage Strategy UK house price annual growth slowed again to 3% in April to £259,700 for an average home, data from Zoopla shows, but adds that the “worst of the monthly house price falls is now behind us”. Last month prices rose at 4.1% on an annual basis, while a year ago homebuying inflation was 9.3%, says ...

Foundation Home Loans cuts rates on core ranges – Mortgage Strategy Foundation Home Loans is introducing rate reductions of up to 0.70% across its core owner-occupied range and up to 0.35% across its core buy-to-let range. The owner-occupied products refresh includes reductions of up to 0.70% across Foundation’s F1 and F2 variable rate products, now starting at 5....

Barratt points to sales pick up in tough year – Mortgage Strategy UK housebuilder Barratt Developments reports a sales pick up and insists it will meet City profit expectations for the year. In its latest trading statement, the housebuilder explains that the early signs of recovery in reservation rates seen in late January and early February has continued. Barratt...

NatWest lifts resi, remortgage rates by up to 21bps – Mortgage Strategy NatWest will lift fixed-rate home loans for new and existing customers across a range of products by up to 21 basis points tomorrow, although some deals will fall by up to 85bps (3 May). The lender says rises among two-year remortgage fixes for new customers include: A 60% loan to value, increasing....

Conveyancing completions lift 44% to top 53,000: Smoove – Mortgage Strategy Smoove says annual sales lifted 7% to £21m, while conveyancing completions jumped 44% to 53,224 at the homemoving hub, which is currently locked in takeover talks. During the year the business struck new partnerships with Mojo, Legal & General, Chimnie, Adviser Services Holdings, and Unbiased, as c...

Virgin Money extends green home loan rewards – Mortgage Strategy Virgin Money will extend its Green Reward home loans for existing residential and buy-to-let borrowers, as well as lift fixed-rate products by up to 38 basis points, from 8pm today (2 May). The lender says it is lengthening the deadline for these green deals, which offer £250 cashback, if customers...

English rents lift 1.2% to top £1,100 in April: Goodlord – Mortgage Strategy Average rents lifted across most English regions in April, rising 1.2% to £1,103, with most areas notching up their highest rentals costs of the year as contracts come up for renewal, data from Goodlord shows. Last month saw the biggest jump in average housing costs for Londoners so far in 2023, ri...

Blog: What does the Law Society guidance mean for climate risk? – Mortgage Strategy The Law Society has issued guidance on its responsibility to ensure their organisations have a low carbon impact — how law firms operate in relation to climate change, the reputational threat posed by greenwashing, and how they can manage their business in a manner which is consistent with the tra...

UTB promotes Kidby to senior bridging role – Mortgage Strategy United Trust Bank (UTB) has promoted Becky Kidby to head of regulated underwriting – bridging finance. The senior management appointment comes as UTB restructures its bridging underwriting function into two dedicated teams - one managing regulated bridging applications; and one managing unregulate...

‘Squeezed middle’ falls short on cover: Hargreaves Lansdown – Mortgage Strategy Only 44% of households have enough life cover to protect their family – but even this falls to 35% of households with a mortgage, says Hargreaves Lansdown. People in their 20s and 30s are most likely to fall short on life cover – with just 30% of those aged 30-34 having enough and 34% of those a...