Shapps calls housing target a con

Grant Shapps, shadow minister of housing, has called Gordon Brown’s pledge to build 3 million homes by 2020 a con.

Your Move sees surge in year-on-year rental demand

The number of new rental leases beginning in October is 53% higher than the same time last year, reveals data from lettings agent Your Move.

Beckett calls for house builders to keep building

Housing minister Margaret Beckett is urging the house building sector to remain on task and continue building in the face of the economic downturn.

Pink launches general insurance referral service

Pink Home Loans will now provide a general insurance referral service to its network members.

Northern Rock to report second year of losses after mortgage arrears rise

Northern Rock will report a second year of losses following a rise in arrears and bad debts, the nationalised mortgage lender said yesterday.

Mortgage arrears increased in the first three months of the year, in line with the deteriorating economic conditions, according to the bank’s first-quarter trading statement.

The size of the losses could exceed the £900m of last year, though the switch in its strategy from repaying a £27bn government loan to becoming a major engine of lending growth makes calculating the size of the loss difficult.

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900,000 homeowners pushed into negative equity, says mortgage body

Falling house prices have pushed more than 900,000 homeowners into negative equity, according to the industry body representing mortgage lenders.

The latest data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders issued yesterday, reveals that the north-east of England has the highest proportion of people trapped in properties worth less than their mortgages.

There, one in 10 owner-occupiers are in negative equity. By contrast, in East Anglia and Scotland it is one in 100.

The council said that its latest national estimate compares with the more than 1.5 million homeowners left struggling under the weight of their home loans following the early 90s housing market crash.

Read more: 900,000 homeowners pushed into negative equity, says mortgage body

Many have interest-free mortgages

Tens of thousands of homeowners now have interest-free mortgages following the latest cut to the Bank of England base rate.

It is estimated that more than 50,000 people took out tracker mortgage deals that are guaranteed to be at least 0.5% below the base rate during the past two years.

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Taxpayer backs fifth of Lloyds mortgages

More than 20% of home loans from Lloyds Banking Group, Britain’s largest mortgage bank, have been included among the group’s most toxic assets and pushed into the government’s insurance scheme in an effort to insulate the firm from the full impact of further house price falls.

Hundreds of thousands of mortgages, worth £74bn, have been included among £260bn of assets placed under the taxpayer protection scheme as part of a deal agreed late on Friday night that could see the government’s stake in Lloyds rise to as much as 77%. The value of home loans to receive a taxpayer guarantee represents 21% of the Lloyds’ residential mortgage book, which is valued at £352bn.

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What to do now cost of mortgages is being cut

Banks and building societies have begun cutting the cost of their mortgages after last week’s Bank of England half-point interest-rate cut to 0.5%, igniting hopes of a battle over fixed-rate deals.

Abbey kicked off the likely action in the five-year fixed-rate market with a market-leading deal at 3.95%, plus a £595 fee, for borrowers with a 40% deposit.

The loan trumps HSBC’s former best-buy, five-year fix at 3.99% with a £999 fee. As with HSBC, Abbey’s deal applies only to loans of £250,000 or less.

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Chelsea reports a loss before tax of £39.3m

Chelsea Building Society made a loss before tax of £39.3m for 2008 as it emerges as the latest mutual to shoulder the costs of the Icelandic banking crisis.

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