A Mortgage Summary to Start Your Year

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Residential Mortgages

Buy to Let Market

Building & Content Insurance

Equity Release & Later Life Mortgages

As first seen in our January 10th 2023 market update newsletter.

Residential Mortgages

We’re off to a brilliant start to 2023. Demand for home ownership and remortgages remains strong, mortgages are available and still affordable. Any potential housing crash is starting to feel unlikely.

Last year saw house prices become rapidly overinflated due to a rush of, in some cases, 20 buyers for every 1 home for sale. A cooling-off period was required, especially for the first time buyers trying to get on the property ladder.

It has been strange to see the Bank of England base rate going up but fixed-rate mortgages getting cheaper. However, it is good news for those people who are due to remortgage in 2023 and those looking to buy also. Many experts are expecting fixed rates to settle between 4-5% depending on loan to value.

Buy to Let Market

The last few years have been challenging for landlords resulting in some amateur ones selling up. 

The more serious investors are carrying on regardless but have faced some difficulties getting mortgages agreed due to the “stress tests” being applied to affordability assessments by lenders.

We are just starting to see these ease off ever so slightly. Here, we have access to buy to let mortgage lenders who allow “top-slicing”. This is where the rent does not exceed the mortgage payments sufficiently, but the Landlord has a good level of earned income from their main employment in the background.

Buildings & Content Insurance

We have partnered with a leading 5-star building and contents insurance provider. We are now able to help our customers, in a matter of minutes, save money on their insurance policies.

Building and contents insurance is available for the property that you live in. Buy to let and landlord insurance is available for a property that you let out.

Equity Release & Later Life Mortgages (Age 55+)

There are plenty of positive signs for 2023 in the later life space with lenders returning to the market and rates starting to reduce across the board.

Higher private rents driven by changes in the buy to let sector are seeing a surge in older clients entering the first-time buyer market seeking creative interest only and lifetime mortgage solutions to achieve their objectives.

We’ve recently added Scottish Widows to our lifetime mortgage proposition. Our in-house team are starting the New Year as one of the few truly whole of market later life advice firms in the market.