Mortgage competition heats up Housing market growth has slowed down a little of late, thanks to several contributing factors - economic uncertainty being one of them, combined with increased living costs. With that comes fewer mortgage approvals, evidence of fewer property purchased and the reduction in demand. Meanwhile, mortgage lenders are upping the competition between each other to attract and win borrowers. All this means for those who are buying, there are better mortgage deals to be had right now.
If you’ve entered in to our prize draw competition please see terms and conditions below.
The end of leasehold for new-build homes Following overwhelming response from the public, the Government confirmed the ban of the sale of new-build leasehold homes in July last year, requiring developers to re-evaluate leasehold agreements.
Cheaper to own a home than rent Yes, it’s official! News this month confirms it’s cheaper to own a home and pay mortgage repayments than to rent. Research from Santander Mortgages reports potential first-time buyers could save in the region of £2,268 a year if they were able to purchase a property over renting. The cost of renting now outweighs that of monthly mortgage repayments by an average of £189 a month with average rents at £912 per household, compared to £723 for repayments.
Many would argue it’s been a long time coming, especially those who desperately want to own their own home and get on the housing ladder. But, despite the average deposit for a home being double the size of ten years ago, last year saw the number of first-time buyers hit the highest level in a decade. The figures from UK Finance, the trade body for Britain’s banks show a total of 365,000 buyers took ownership of their first home in 2017, an increase of 7.4% compared to 2016 and the highest number since 2006.
Those first-time buyers faced with months, even years of saving to get their first home can now breathe a little easier thanks to the Government’s announcement in the recent Autumn budget, to scrap Stamp Duty on homes less than £300,00, for those buying their first home.
Strata is an established home builder, building stunning new homes at developments across affordable Yorkshire and Midlands regions, including areas like Leeds, Hull, Wakefield, Leicester and Burton on Trent. Strata’s love of design, unrivalled attention to detail and high-quality specification comes through each house and street scene they create, while customer experience is engrained in all they do. With a forward-thinking philosophy and continually striving to the best on the market, a new home from Strata should definitely be considered.
More house builders needed Recent news reports the Government will struggle to meet its housebuilding target due to a severe shortage of skilled construction workers. And the situation for the construction industry is predicted to worsen once Britain leaves the European Union, as many of the current skilled workers are from EU countries. It’s not a new problem within the industry and certainly hasn’t come about due to Brexit alone. In fact, the skills shortage has been noted for some time due to an ageing workforce and a lack of new entrants to the market.
Will the Government hit their new homes target? Some said it was always a very ambitious target, and data made public at the beginning of this month goes to confirm that, with figures from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government showing the Government will fall short of reaching its 1 million new homes target by 2020.
Conveyancing goes digital Changes are on the way to make conveyancing simpler, faster and cheaper with the introduction of digital services.
