Paying my mortgage off in retirement
WE covered how equity release should work last week, and we had a few reader queries around how homeowners, who still have a mortgage after retirement, might be able cope. I’ll lay out options here to help you decide. Nearly 500,000 people still have a mortgage after retirement and research shows they have a home worth […]
How is the mortgage market supporting house prices?
OVER the last two weeks I covered the housing market and this column is about why the market has turned and how rates are misunderstood. At the beginning of this rate rise, we were clear they wouldn’t rocket as the mainstream press said, and we explained that in this column. They haven’t. Borrowers tell us […]
Are house prices more affordable?
WE covered the different measures used when assessing the housing market last week, due to the discrepancy between house prices rising at ‘record highs’, versus the very low volume of housing sales, and the news that the number of estate agents declaring insolvency jumped by a third last year. We know UK residential property transactions […]
Is the housing market high?
THE housing market is at a record high it says. Well, that depends on who is writing the headlines, and for what reason, and from what source. Firstly, there are a few measures for the housing market in terms of an index (e.g. Rightmove, Office of National Statistics (ONS) etc) and you should stick to the […]
The economic comparison of owning or renting a home
THIS week I want to look at how owning or renting a home compare. I’ll have to be broad with the comparison by looking at house prices across the whole of the UK. I’ll compare average rents, repairs, mortgages and see how the numbers work out. The average property value in 1999 (25 years ago) […]
The pros and cons of owning a home versus renting
HERE’S a question we get asked quite a lot so I want to break it down into different points – what are the advantages of owning a home versus renting a home? Wealth creation: Homeownership has typically been a source of wealth accumulation due to property appreciation over time. Cost of borrowing: As a homeowner, […]
Applying for a mortgage? Here’s my list of mortgage tips
THERE are often some easy tweaks to your finances which can save you quite a bit of money, so I had a chat to my mortgage director about some of the easy, but common mistakes made when applying for a mortgage. When you apply for a mortgage, try to avoid making your way around lenders […]
How your mortgage rates are calculated – get our free review
MORE than 1.4 million people in the UK, including tens of thousands in Northern Ireland, will have had the joy of coming out of the security of a fixed rate mortgage into a tornado of hiked variable rates, often wondering if the weather was going to get worse. It is very stressful indeed. I get […]
Are mortgage rates rising or falling?
IN MARCH 2018 I wrote an article entitled ‘Mortgage Stress Test at Seven Per Cent’. It said: “To stress test their mortgages at seven per cent would be unheard of. That would be Armageddon and a ‘conspiracy’.” Until it wasn’t of course. It has surpassed that level. My view then was that those short of […]
Return of the 100 per cent mortgage
SOMEHOW a home became an investment. Then, it became an economy. I’m not sure how that occurred. They are a depreciating asset from day one. Take Switzerland, with arguably the richest population in the world. They don’t really buy houses, choosing instead to invest their capital elsewhere. Home ownership is around 45 per cent. It […]
Mortgage apathy can cost £160,000
FOLLOWING last week’s coverage on the benefits/advantages to use a mortgage broker rather than going to a high street, I mentioned I would cover the savings in rate charges. They are quite staggering, so hang on in while I ramble back over a couple of points I’ve missed. While I mentioned last week that the […]
The benefits of a mortgage broker
IT’S said that a cynic knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Or, as one other friend of mine once put it – ‘we want Swedish services for American prices’. With inflation soaring it’s easy to focus on the actual cost of an item but not the value. Let me show you […]