New 95% LTV Help To Buy Scheme To Launch

The government will launch a 5% deposit Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme. It will be limited to properties worth up to £600,000, though it will not be restricted to first-time buyers or new builds – like the new version of the equity loan scheme. Lenders utilising the scheme will offer mortgages fixed for at least five years. Under the terms of the scheme, banks and building societies will be able to buy a government guarantee to compensate them for a portion of their losses in the event of a repossession. Read more on the Property Wire website.

https://www.propertywire.com/news/new-95-ltv-help-to-buy-scheme-to-launch/

First-Time Buyers Offered More Choice Of 90% Mortgages

First-time buyers have more choice of mortgage deals after several banks and building societies this week launched 90% home loans. During much of last year, 90% loan-to-value (LTV) deals requiring a 10% deposit were thin on the ground, but in recent weeks more lenders have stepped back into this market. A three-year fixed-rate 90% deal priced at 3.4% and with a £199 upfront fee has been launched by Nottingham building society. It also rolled out a two-year fix at 85% LTV with a rate of 2.6% that has no fees. Read more on the Guardian website.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/feb/20/uk-first-time-buyers-offered-more-choice-of-90-per-cent-mortgages

Natwest Relaunches 85% LTV Mortgages

NatWest is reintroducing eight new 85% LTV products for purchase and remortgage. Two-year fixed rates start from 1.94% with a £995 fee and £250 cashback or 2.95% with no fee. Five-year fixed rates are available from 2.34% with a £995 fee and £250 cashback or 3.39% fee-free. NatWest says the 85% LTV products are being reintroduced initially through its direct channels, followed by the intermediary channel in the coming weeks. Read more on the Financial Reporter website.

https://www.financialreporter.co.uk/mortgages/natwest-relaunches-85-ltv-mortgages.html

Help To Buy Sugar-Rush Reveals Government’s Out Of Ideas On Housing

The Help to Buy initiative— supplying government equity loans of 20% to buyers of new homes, who need only chip in a 5% deposit — has already been extended twice since its introduction in 2013.  Back then high loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages of 95% were rare. Now there are almost eight times as many, with about 300 products on the market. So it was depressing that the Government chucked another £10 billion at HTB as Tories panic about frustrated homeowners shut out of the market. Read more on the Evening Standard website.

Will Demise Of Help To Buy 2 Squeeze Out FTBs?

First-time buyers are the lifeblood of the mortgage market but could lenders be about to restrict their circulation? A recent 16 per cent fall in the availability of 95 per cent LTV mortgages, coupled with the upcoming end to the Government’s Help to Buy 2 scheme, has led to fears about the long-term health of the sector. Figures released jointly by Moneyfacts and AmTrust International, Mortgage and Special Risks show a decline in the number of 95 per cent LTV products in the market between March and August, from 270 to 225. However, the number of available products remains significantly higher than the 195 in August 2015. So should we be worried about this drop? Read more on the Mortgage Strategy website.

Nationwide Tightens Lending Criteria For Buy-To-Let Landlords

Nationwide building society is tightening up its criteria for lending to buy-to-let landlords ahead of changes to how much tax relief they will be allowed to claim against their repayments. Landlords who take new loans from the society’s specialist arm The Mortgage Works (TMW) will only be able to borrow up to 75% of a property’s value, instead of the current 80%, and will have to prove that their rental income is at least 145% of their monthly mortgage payments. Currently the figure is 125%, in line with most other lenders. The changes come ahead of new rules on mortgage interest relief for landlords, which will begin to take effect in April 2017, and as the Bank of England attempts to rein in buy-to-let lending. Read more on the Guardian website.

Shrinking Help to Buy Deposits Spark Negative Equity Fears

First time buyers and home movers are scraping together increasingly smaller deposits to buy a house through the controversial Help to Buy scheme, new research shows. The Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB), which represents hundreds of UK brokers, said the average loan to value (LTV) for buyers using the mortgage guarantee element of Help to Buy, which provides Government guarantees for high LTV mortgages, rose to a record 94.4pc in the three months to June. It went up from 94.1pc in the quarter to May and 92.6pc in the first quarter of 2014. This was close to the maximum 95pc LTV available through the scheme.  The data raise concerns that if house prices fall sharply, more people will be at risk of falling into negative equity. Read more on the Daily Telegraph website.