Similar to it’s well known namesake, the MMR is designed to immunise against the possible ill-effects of another boom-time credit party, protecting us all against the ravages of excess and poor lending practices that brought the UK economy to its knees.
What the FSA was hoping, was that this could be achieved with as little side-effects as possible, especially given the state of the housing market in general at present.
Ever since the issues first engulfed our industry 4 years ago I seem to be fed up of saying, “wow, that was an extraordinary week” and last week was no exception.
It began with some positives from the previous week; UK growth was confirmed at 0.5% in the 3rd quarter of this year and the Government launched its much anticipated Housing Strategy, pulling together a range of announcements with a couple of new ones to try to stimulate growth and return some confidence back to the house building industry.
Another interesting week in store as Georgie boy, the Chancellor prepares to deliver his Autumn Statement tomorrow. Expect a dash of hard realism with a hint of hope that will be crushed by the media fixated on the mantra that bad news sells.
The real issue, like an annoying soap opera you don’t really like but can’t help watching, is still playing itself out in Europe. Rumours are both good, that the IMF is preparing a EU600 billion bail out of Italy to solve its issues, (denied by the IMF for now) and bad, that ratings agencies are poised to basically downgrade the whole of Europe causing further issues, (not denied)!
Apparently, and, (said in the style of Theresa May), I am not making this up, HSBC have said that “HSBC accepts around nine in 10 of all customers who apply for a mortgage with the bank”.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, (stop it, ha, my, ha, sides hurt, ha).
Actually maybe that’s a little disingenuous, as to be fair at least they are giving the impression of supporting the average mortgage borrower and their rates have been consistently attractive. However, in making this comment whilst trying to put the proverbial boot in to mortgage brokers who they clearly see as an irritant, (who needs independent advice pah, advice is for wimps), they are opening themselves up to closer inspection.
As politicians all over the world wonder how the hell they are going to get out of the mire that surrounds them, we are beginning to see options taken that are provoking a great deal of debate. The latest is the US’s Operation Twist.
First tried back in 1961 as an “experiment” whose results are still disputed, this involves the Fed selling short-term bonds and, here’s the twist, replacing them with longer term ones. The result is that as more long-term bonds are purchased interest rates should fall, (it’s a supply and demand thing, sort of).
Andrew Montlake, Communications Director at Coreco and ‘Mortgage Personality of the Year 2008’, gives his views — honest and no holds barred — on the latest developments within the mortgage and property markets.A fee of up to 1% of the mortgage amount may be charged depending on individual circumstances. A typical fee is £495.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or any debt secured upon it.
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