The announcement of the new stamp duty cut aims to increase growth in the housing market and help many first-time buyers get on the property ladder. What happened to the first Stamp Duty cut? In 2020, former Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, introduced a stamp duty holiday to soften the blow to the property market from the…
Michael Gove has recently announced new rules from April 2023; which are designed to prevent second home tax abuse by some owners in England. Please note that different rules apply in the other UK countries. Currently second homeowners can avoid paying Council Tax on their property; and access small business rate relief instead by simply…
House prices in UK cities now average eight times local annual earnings, as price growth continues to outstrip wage rises. New research by Halifax found that houses cost anything from five times your yearly salary to 14 times, depending on which city you live in. So, where is the most and least affordable cities to…
An astonishing 57% of homeowners have expressed an interest in releasing equity from their property in later life. Broken down by age, this statistic increases to 74% for homeowners aged 30 to 39. Meanwhile 47% of homeowners in the 60 to 69 years old age bracket are interested in accessing money from the value of…
Is there ever a perfect time to get a mortgage? Ultimately, none of us really want a mortgage; we’d all rather buy a property outright. However, sadly for the vast majority of us, this isn’t possible. However, if you are considering applying for a mortgage, or are thinking of remortgaging; now could be the ideal…
2021 has been marked as the year of the seasoned home mover, according to a news report by the BBC. In fact, home mover mortgages (mortgages offered to those who already own a property) represented 42% of total mortgage lending between January and March. This is up from 27% in the same time last year. Surprisingly,…
With the phased end of the government’s stamp duty holiday almost upon us; property buyers who have not yet completed their purchases face a frantic rush to do so by the end of today. It is feared that buyers who have already borrowed up to their maximum limit, but who miss the deadline, will not…
The First Homes Scheme is a new Government initiative that starts on 28th June 2021. However, seeing as the homes that qualify for these schemes are still yet to be built, it is unlikely we will see any completions until 2022. What is the First Homes scheme? The First Homes Scheme is the government’s latest affordable…
Interest rates were held at 0.1% again in May. However, the Bank of England (BoE) has upgraded their economic growth forecasts for this year. The new forecast from the BoE has predicted that 2021 will be the strongest year of growth, since the Second World War! A unanimous vote was carried out by the Bank…
The government-backed 95% mortgage scheme that was announced at the Budget is now available to lenders. The scheme aims to help first-time buyers or homeowners obtain a mortgage with a 5% deposit to buy a property of up to £600,000. The scheme is one of a range of flexible home ownership options available. These include…
