State ignores the risk of raising homebuyers’ loans
After the Bank of Mum & Dad, we know have the Nanny State Bank. Government plans to top-up homebuyers’ mortgages are bad for both the borrower and the lender.
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BLOGS
The Edge
Richard Northedge takes on corporate finance
Archive for the ‘Mortgages’ category
Houses are affordable but we’re still not buying
Britain needs more affordable housing, scream the social reformers. Well, actually, Britain’s housing is now more affordable than at any time since the 1990s. It isn’t cost that stops people buying.
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Property’s return to recession is bad news all round
Double-dip is here. The housing market is now officially back in recession having recorded two consecutive quarters of negative growth. And don’t forget, the housing market was the first part of the economy to turn down in 2007.
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Northern Rock: good brand, shame about the losses
Northern Rock has proved the law of unintended consequences. Having split this year into a “good bank” and “bad bank”, it is the bad half that is making profits while the good half has reported a loss. Maybe the government will have to sell the “bad bank” and be stuck with the good.
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The secret housing boom will fuel confidence
It was only last spring we were being told house prices were down 18 per cent on the year: now the rate of inflation is about to become plus 10 per cent. A hidden housing boom is underway.
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Scrapping Hips is a cost for homebuyers
Home Information Packs – Hips – were introduced as the housing market turned down, but it would be wrong to blame them for the house price slump. And it would be equally wrong for the Conservative Party to scrap them just because they were a Labour idea.
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Sssh, don’t mention the green shoots
Here is the good news. There is some good news. It is a rash politician who mentions green shoots until they have become sturdy plants, but there are signs of economic improvement.
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Can Easter save the housing market?
It was the housing market that led us into this financial mess. Is it ready to lead us out?
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Use interest rate cuts to reduce mortgages
Instead of using the latest cuts in interest rate to reduce mortgage-borrowers’ monthly costs, why not use the saving to reduce their loans? It wouldn’t directly stimulate the economy but it would boost the banks and make people richer.
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RBS stance will help no one
Before Royal Bank of Scotland gives all its customers a six-month mortgage holiday it should remember that 42 per cent of its shares are still in private hands.
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