Mortgages to remain low
The latest figures were released during a week that the City watchdog proposed strict new rules for the mortgage market, which would see home owners forced to disclose how much they spend on alcohol and clothes when they apply for a home loan.
Total gross mortgage lending rose 2 per cent to £12.5 billion, but it is still 27 per cent down on the time a year earlier, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
The CML attributed the relative stability in lending during recent months on a pick up in people buying new homes being offset by a decline in the numbers remortgaging.
Paul Samter, an economist at the CML, said: “House buying activity is running at considerably higher levels than around the turn of the year. However, it remains weak on any historic comparison and is unlikely to rise much further given the constraints the lending community faces and a still difficult economic backdrop.
“But there are some positive signs to look to. While the retail side, both in terms of mortgage and savings activity, has thrown up few surprises, it is encouraging that the wholesale markets have begun to thaw. Some of the UK’s highly rated institutions have been able to issue structured finance products backed by mortgages in recent weeks. This is only an early sign of wholesale investors tentatively coming back into the new issuance market, but is welcome nonetheless.”
Andrew Montlake, of mortgage brokers Coreco, said: “While these latest figures hardly set the world alight, they do highlight the continued stabilization in the housing market and some undoubted positive signs.
“There is, however, a danger that proposed regulatory changes in the near future could serve to derail this improvement. It’s ironic that, on the one hand, the Government is trying to force lenders to lend more, and on the other hand, is planning to make it harder for them to do just that.
“What is clear is that any recovery will be inherently purchase-led. While remortgages are continuing to drop off, buyers are still clamouring to take advantage of low rates and low prices.”
Mortgage Fraud in the UK
City of London police has reported a 72% increase in cases of financial fraud largely driven by a jump in mortgage scams over the previous year.
The force said allegations of mortgage fraud had reached double figures and were one of the largest areas of activity for its officers. The number of investigations is expected to increase over the next year as frauds came to light and lenders sought to recover their losses, it said.
Last week Chelsea Building Society became the second lender to be hit by mortgage fraud after Bradford & Bingley said it was the target of criminal gangs.
Chelsea estimated its losses at £41m, which pushed the mutual into a first-half loss of £26m. The building society said gangs with the support of professional advisers were behind fraudulent buy-to-let loans made between 2006 and 2008 on hundreds of properties in Manchester, Leeds and several other northern cities.
This month Bradford & Bingley, the nationalised buy-to-let lender, set aside an extra £100m for potential losses from mortgage fraud.
Detective chief superintendent Steve Head, the chief of the City of London’s economic crime directorate, said mortgage fraud “was happening all over the country” and “has jumped from nothing 18 months ago to being one of the biggest areas of investigation”.
Head said he expected the number of investigations to rise, though lenders were being slow to report cases to his unit, which has taken the lead in tackling financial crime since 2003.
“While the amounts of money we are dealing with are significant, I don’t think we are seeing the full picture. It is a fraction of the amount of fraud that has taken place. It is the mortgage lenders that are hit by the crime and they usually see it first. It would be good if the lenders were coming forward more than they are at the moment.” Most of his work centres on potentially fraudulent mortgage applications or professional negligence on property valuations driven by a booming property market.
Last year the Association of Chief Police Officers estimated that mortgage frauds rake in £700m a year.
“Greed is the driving factor in fraud,” said Head. “There are some where there are family links, some cultural links and some where the only link is greed. But a valuer is a key figure in the process.”
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors is investigating 10 complaints of valuation fraud, several of them in conjunction with the City Police.
Simon Bevan, head of fraud services unit at BDO Stoy Haywood, estimated that mortgage fraud cases had risen from £13m in 2008 to almost £200m in the first half of 2009. “This is not a figure showing how much fraud was out there, it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “We are six months away from investigations starting in earnest because the lenders haven’t got round to tackling it yet.
Bevan believes that domestic mortgage fraud could top £1bn by the end of the recession and commercial property mortgage fraud could reach £5bn.
The Financial Services Authority has banned 65 mortgage brokers in the last three years for mortgage fraud and levied fines totalling more than £1m.
Since last year a group of 40 of its staff from its enforcement division investigated brokers for a range of rule breaches. Often the brokers allowed customers to inflate their incomes to obtain larger mortgages. When they could no longer pay the monthly bills, it emerges the customer could never afford the original loan.
In some cases gangs would buy a property, typically in a large development, at a deliberately inflated price.
Once the purchases appeared on the Land Registry website, they would be used as a basis for subsequent valuations, enabling the fraudsters to obtain inflated mortgage applications on other homes, often in the same development.
So, if a property was valued at £250,000 but was only actually worth £200,000, the gang could pocket the spare £50,000 to fund further deposits or to remove offshore.
The gang would usually include a solicitor and surveyor “on the payroll” to ensure that the funds from the lender were siphoned off.
Frauds went undetected because, at the height of the boom, lenders were happy to hand out mortgages without carrying out their own due diligence but relying on third party valuations.
Rising property values disguised the fraud so that only when the market collapsed and the fraudsters pulled out did lenders realise that an asset they thought was worth £250,000 – to use our example – was worth much less, perhaps as little as £150,000 due to the falling market.
Other scams involved enticing investors to buy new-build properties off-plan.
The homes would be advertised as high-specification and priced accordingly but in reality they would be built on the cheap, leaving investors and lenders with properties worth a fraction of the mortgage.
Phillip Inman Guardian
HSBC Mortgages
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You can buy your new home with up to three friends and you can choose from a fixed, discount or tracker rate. We offer two Pricing packages on our fixed and tracker rate mortgages – with or without upfront fees.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
What you get with this mortgage
•Loans are based on your individual circumstances and what you can afford
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NatWest Bank Mortgage Lender
NatWest Bank – UK Mortgage Lender
The NatWest Bank’s antecedents date back to the 1650s via the National Provincial Bank, founded in 1833 and the Westminster Bank, founded in 1836. These two banks merged in 1968 to form the National Westminster Bank. National Westminster Home Loans was set up in 1980. In 2000, the Royal Bank of Scotland took over NatWest, which, at the time, was the largest takeover in British banking history.
The NatWest Bank has around 2,600 branches throughout the UK.
Mortgage Products
Fixed Rate Mortgages: 2 year, 3 year and 5 year fixed rate mortgages and remortgages.
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As one of the large high street banks, NatWest has the advantage of being able to offer an extensive range of products and ease of communication. As well as the traditional mortgage offerings there are also 100% mortgages, buy to let mortgages and life time mortgages. Overseas investors are also catered for with mortgages available for properties in Spain.
Other products include current accounts, personal loans and credit cards. Investment products are also extensive including several funds and bonds which can be taken out independently of mortgages.
Chelsea Building Society
Finding the right mortgage for you
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If you are new to Chelsea, you’ll find full details of our mortgages designed with you in mind.
What’s more if you are switching your mortgage to Chelsea, but not moving your home you’ll find some of our mortgages offer assistance with fees including your legal fees (subject to conditions). And even with our other mortgages you can still take advantage of our Legal service for remortgages. Click on the ‘New borrower products’ link to the left of the page for more details of our mortgages.
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Not only do we have a range of mortgages to cover most circumstances, we also offer a range of insurances designed to protect the biggest purchase of your life, your possessions and even your mortgage payments should you become unemployed or unable to work.
What to do if you can’t pay your mortgage
If you are currently experiencing difficulties in paying your mortgage or can see that you will soon have problems, you need to contact us as soon as possible.
Further information on what steps you need to take and where to seek advice can be found on our mortgage difficulties page.
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Welcome To Compound Mortgage Services, Your London, UK Mortgage Broker
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Lend Go
Finding a cheap remortgage deal is a difficult task, as all lenders are not alike and rates between loan programs vary from lender to lender. Mortgage lenders each specialize in a certain loan programs and borrower types – Some cater to adverse remortgage borrowers while others cater to prime credit borrowers. Some lenders have low rates for lower LTV mortgages, while others do not offer discounts for lower LTV home loans. This makes shopping around for your remortgage loan and comparing lenders very important. At Lendgo we have over 6,000 FSA licensed mortgage advisors in our network, when you use Lendgo to compare remortgage rates, our system will search through our vast network of advisors and find you the best mortgage advisor given your unique circumstance.
London Mortgage Direct
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Mortgage Companies in London
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Blue Box
We provide expert Mortgage, Loan & General Insurance advice to many clients. Our primary function is to save you money, save you time, and deploy our experience to resource the best deal for you from the whole market of providers.
We weigh up all the costs and issues on your behalf, and provide advice and assistance throughout the process.
There may be a fee for arranging your mortgage. The precise amount will depend on your circumstances but we estimate that it will be £100, this fee will be payable on completion once we have advised you, recommended and then delivered the most suitable mortgage. Blue Box Financial Ltd will confirm the exact amount of fees at the very beginning.
For more information about how we can help you, call 0845 460 60 70 or email enquiries@blueboxmortgages.com.
