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April 30, 2008
by Gill Montia
Nationwide's latest house price index shows that in April, the cost of a UK home fell by 1.1% month-on-month.
According to the lender, house prices have declined for the sixth consecutive month and the annual rate of inflation is now -1% below April 2007, marking the first fall in annual house price inflation for 12 years.
An average home now costs £178,555, or ...
by Gill Montia
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and its subsidiary, NatWest, have cut mortgage rates.
Both lenders have reduced the cost of new lending on their most popular deals, in an effort to increase market share.
From 1st May, interest rates on two-year and five-year fixed rate products will fall by between 0.10 and 0.30 percentage points.
Borrowers buying a new home can secure a ...
by Kay Murchie
Aviva has stunned the insurance sector by announcing it is to scrap the Norwich Union brand name.
Norwich Union is the biggest life-insurer in the UK with a strong position in car insurance and has been one of the country's best-known financial services brands for over 200 years.
Aviva's chief executive since last July, Andrew Moss, unveiled the plans and said ...
April 29, 2008
by Gill Montia
Latest figures from the Bank of England show that the UK mortgage market is continuing to contract, with the number of loans for house purchases falling to a record low, in March.
The volume of mortgages approved for the purchase of a property fell during the month to 64,000, compared with 72,000 in February.
The figure is 44% below March 2007 and ...
by Gill Montia
Abbey, which is now the UK's second largest mortgage lender, increased its share of the home loans market to 15.9% in the first three months of the year.
The figure translates as a meteoric rise when compared with the 4.9% share held in the first quarter of 2007, rising to 8.5% in the final quarter of last year.
The Spanish-owned bank recorded net ...
by Gill Montia
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) is predicting a sharp rise in the number of repossessions this year.
The economic forecaster is expecting the figure to increase by 23%, to 33,400.
CEBR has based its prediction on the rising cost of mortgages, tighter lending criteria that will leave some homeowners struggling to remortgage, and higher fuel and food prices.
It has also ...
by Kay Murchie
Research by Tescocompare.com, the car insurance comparison site, has established that 2 million motorists claim to be driving an environmentally friendly car.
Low-emission vehicles are most popular in Wales and the South West, where 12% have chosen a car which is environmentally friendly compared to 4% in London.
However, Tescocompare.com, discovered that more than 21 million are driven by financial ...
by Kay Murchie
Price comparison site, moneysupermarket.com, is warning current account savers to check the small print.
For instance, Alliance & Leicester's Premier Regular Saver offers a huge 12% but only in conjunction with its current account that pays 1.5%. In comparison, the bank’s best current account pays 8.5%.
Another example is getting more people to invest in shares. Abbey's Super ISA and Super Saver are ...
by Kay Murchie
British motorists considering driving overseas this year must ensure they are adequately insured.
The price comparison site, moneysupermarket.com, is urging drivers to look at their car insurance policies before thinking about driving abroad.
39% of motorists are unaware their motor insurance may be automatically downgraded from comprehensive to third party when driving in Europe, according to moneysupermarket.
Five of the UK's ...
April 28, 2008
by Elaine Frei
Asia-Pacific region equities were mixed Monday, with gains led by banks.
In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries added 0.2 percent to 5,670.3 and the S&P/ASX200 was up 0.28 percent to 5,602.7, while elsewhere the Straits Times Index was 0.39 percent higher to 3,201.63, the Hang Seng gained 0.59 percent to 25,666.29 and the Taiex jumped 1.47 percent to 9,079.6.
Decliners included the Kospi index, which was down ...
by Gill Montia
Nationwide Building Society has mixed news for new mortgage customers.
From 1st May, the lender aims to help those getting a foot on the property ladder with an offer on its three-year tracker and fixed-rate mortgages.
First-time buyers applying to the building society direct will be eligible for a £300 discount on their reservation fee and a £100 discount on legal fees, if they use ...
by Kay Murchie
Records show that debt enquiries have hit record highs recently as higher mortgage repayments and rising utility bills means that households are struggling.
This has resulted in the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) being inundated with queries. However, one of the CAB’s busiest branches is being forced to close.
The branch in Hull, which has renegotiated debt for people who owed ...
by Gill Montia
Latest figures from Hometrack, the housing intelligence firm, show a 0.9% drop in annual house price inflation in April. A month earlier, prices registered an annual gain of 0.4%; a year earlier, an annual rise of nearly 7%.
Values fell across half the UK, whereas in March only 29% of postcode districts registered a fall.
Hometrack attributes the continued decline ...
by Gill Montia
Britain's largest housebuilder, Persimmon, is calling a halt to all planned developments until mortgage conditions have improved.
The company has reported a sharp decline in sales over the past three weeks, despite April traditionally being the busiest time of the year for housebuilders, and has recorded a 24% decline in sales since the beginning of this year.
Total revenue for 2008 totals ...
by Gill Montia
Co-operative Bank has launched a lifetime tracker mortgage at 1.04% above base rate, giving a current interest rate of 6.04%.
The economic uncertainty created by the credit crisis is prompting an increasing number of borrowers to opt for fixed-rate loans, with Abbey reporting that applications for five-year fixed-rate products had doubled in the past month.
Two-year fixed rate deals had also retained their popularity with ...
by Kay Murchie
The board of HBOS is to meet today to discuss a multi-billion-pound rights issue to shore up its balance sheet.
Chairman of the group, Lord Stevenson of Coddenham, has called the discussions ahead of the bank’s annual shareholder meeting tomorrow in Glasgow, at which it is expected to announce further write-downs.
According to reports in Sunday papers, it is feared ...
April 25, 2008
by Gill Montia
Cash-strapped banks are increasingly acting to secure personal loans and credit card debt against property.
According to the Ministry of Justice, court orders made in this respect rose to 131,644 in 2007, up 42% on 2006.
Charging orders work in the same way as a second mortgage on a property, and can provide a guarantee to creditors.
Indebted property owners are not required ...
by Kay Murchie
Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group (MFG) is the latest financial institution to make job cuts after it announced plans to completely withdraw from the London market in creating securitised products.
Earlier this month, MFG posted a 50% fall in full-year profit after posting the $5.5bn on mortgage securities, the highest by an Asian company.
A spokesperson Mizuho Financial Group (MFG) in Tokyo said ...
by Kay Murchie
The Government took Northern Rock into public ownership on February 22 and shareholders were believed not to be in favour of the nationalisation and have since been threatening legal action.
The UK Shareholder's Association (UKSA) (acting on behalf of the Northern Rock’s shareholders) believes that the UK Government confiscated the shares even though there was a good private sector solution ...
by Kay Murchie
Nomura Holdings, Japan's largest securities brokerage group, announced today that it has incurred losses in the fiscal year ended March, due to sub-prime loan-related losses.
Nomura posted a three-month net loss of 153.9 billion yen (£745 million, $1.47 billion). Revenue dropped 22.2% to 1.59 trillion yen.
It is the latest in a long line of financial institutions to report losses linked to ...
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Nationwide's latest house price index shows that in April, the cost of a UK home fell by 1.1% month-on-month.
According to the lender, house prices have declined for the sixth consecutive month and the annual rate of inflation is now -1% below April 2007, marking the first fall in annual house price inflation for 12 years.
An average home now costs £178,555, or ...
Latest figures from the Bank of England show that the UK mortgage market is continuing to contract, with the number of loans for house purchases falling to a record low, in March.
The volume of mortgages approved for the purchase of a property fell during the month to 64,000, compared with 72,000 in February.
The figure is 44% below March 2007 and ...
Asia-Pacific region equities were mixed Monday, with gains led by banks.
In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries added 0.2 percent to 5,670.3 and the S&P/ASX200 was up 0.28 percent to 5,602.7, while elsewhere the Straits Times Index was 0.39 percent higher to 3,201.63, the Hang Seng gained 0.59 percent to 25,666.29 and the Taiex jumped 1.47 percent to 9,079.6.
Decliners included the Kospi index, which was down ...
