Clydesdale Bank has approved more mortgages in the past two months than it did this time last year. The bank approved 30% more home loans in May and June compared to the same period in 2008. This rise in approvals follows Clydesdale’s pledge last week to release a further £1 billion of new lending to [...]
A BBC Scotland investigation has suggested that Scottish homeowners struggling with mortgage arrears are more likely to be repossessed than their English and Welsh counterparts. A programme screened on BBC One Scotland yesterday compared the legal measures available to prevent repossession in Scotland with those covering the rest of the UK. The programme makers claimed [...]
Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has promised to provide £1.7 billion-worth of mortgage finance to Scottish homebuyers during 2008. The lender will also continue to offer loans of up to 90% of a property’s value, which should help first-time buyers enter the market. Buyer enquiries have risen nationally in the recent weeks as falling house [...]
Economists at Strathclyde University believe Scotland could be hit hard by the recession with 159,000 jobs expected to go over the 2008 to 2011 period. The alarming survey, conducted by the Fraser of Allander Institute, said the downturn could be worse than the recession in the 1980s and is predicting that Scottish net output could [...]
From 1st December homeowners selling residential properties in Scotland will need to provide potential purchasers with a Home Report. The reports include a survey, valuation, energy assessment and a questionnaire that has been completed by the vendor. As with the introduction of Home Information Packs in England and Wales during 2007/08, the timing is seen [...]
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) Scotland has reported that loans for house purchases fell to 15,100 in the three months to the end of September. Scotland still continues to support the highest regional share of new UK house purchase lending but the figure represents an 18% decline on the previous quarter and is in [...]
Latest research into house prices from Nationwide show that Scotland’s housing market is riding out the credit crisis and mortgage famine better than other regions of the UK. According to the building society, the average UK house price has fallen 4% since the beginning of the year but homes in Scotland have recorded average growth [...]
According to the latest survey from the Nationwide, house prices fell by 0.9% in June. This is less than half the 2.5% fall experienced in May. The Nationwide said that the average UK house price is now £172,415, which is 6.3% lower than in June last year. In spite of the price falls over recent [...]
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has begun a market study into property management services for common and shared residential property in Scotland. Tenements and other collective residential properties in the region use property managers, known as factors, to manage shared areas such as roofs, staircases, entrances and gardens. The study will look at how [...]
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has revealed that residents of Scotland are finding it easier to secure mortgages for new house purchases than homemovers in England and Wales. In the first three months of the year, the proportion of home loans granted for purchases increased to 11%, up from 8% in the previous quarter. [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
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