Bank of Ireland Mortgage Move Destroys Trust

David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com says the move to hike rates on some Bristol and West Tracker Mortgages looks wrong – and destroys confidence in all lenders. When I speak to people who want to sell services to private landlords (which includes organisations like local authorities and housing associations that desperately need private rented sector landlords to make their houses available […]

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Mortgage Loans and Housing Benefit and Why a Selective Approach is the Better Option

David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com observes the latest mortgage lender U turn on allowing landlords to let to housing benefit tenants, but says that rather than a “blanket” approach of either allowing or not allowing landlords to do this, a better way would be if lenders “selectively” allowed it – with the decision linked to other variables such as landlord experience […]

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Nationwide Mortgage Works Housing Benefit U Turn

David Lawrenson of Private Rented Sector Consultants LettingFocus.com looks at why some mortgage lenders don’t want to allow landlords to let to tenants who are dependent on housing benefit to pay their rent. Last week, at this blog, I looked at Nationwide’s new policy (for the Mortgage Works) to not allow landlords taking out mortgages or remortgages with them to […]

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Mortgage Lender Restrictions on Landlords Letting to the Housing Benefit Dependent & the Implications for the Govt

Mortgage lenders are increasingly not allowing private landlords to let to tenants on benefits. This can only lead to even more landlords removing their properties from this end of the market – a part of the market where tenants have very few housing options. With nowhere else to go, more families will need to be put up in expensive B&B […]

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The Impact of Landlord Regulation on Buy to Let Mortgage Terms, Conditions and Availability

Many buy to let mortgage lenders are still not “ahead of the curve” in terms of understanding the impact of legal and regulatory changes in the private rented sector – and this often leaves their own businesses exposed to losses, says David Lawrenson of private rented consultancy, www.LettingFocus.com In an interesting piece in Joanne Atkin’s “Mortgage Finance Gazette”, Paul Walshe […]

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Buy to Let Mortgages and Tenants on Benefits

Some mortgage lenders still don’t let landlords who have mortgage loans with them to let their properties to tenants who are on benefits. Many private landlords are reluctant to let to tenants who are dependent on housing benefits, preferring tenants who do not have to rely on the state for any assistance. There are a number of reasons why: 1. […]

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Getting the Best Buy to Let Mortgage Deal for You

In this blog post, private rented sector expert, David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com looks at how to get the most suitable mortgage deal. I’m often somewhat surprised by the fuss folks make about getting a mortgage and some of the wrong decisions they make too. To us it seems pretty simple. The first question to ask is for how long you […]

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The Private Rented Sector and the Organisations that Supply It

Last week I attended two big housing related events and an online blog debate. The first up was “Housing 2012”, the big annual Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) conference, which was being held for the first time in Manchester. I attended as a new CIH member visiting the exhibition. Later in the week I was back in London, where I […]

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Bad Mortgage Lending and Property Bubbles

For some reason, investing in residential property has often made a fool out of otherwise sensible people (and banks). All too often, they cannot see a bubble until it is about to burst. In this blog post David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com mulls over the wreckage. Every now and then you will read of a banker (or one of their supporters) […]

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