Repossession day in court: ten minutes with a lawyer, five before a judge | Jon Robins

Posted by & filed under Borrowing & debt, Comment, Family finances, guardian.co.uk, Housing, Law, Legal aid, Money, Open justice, Property, Repossessions, Society, UK news.

Legally-aided advice desk at Clerkenwell and Shoreditch county court is a vital service for clients who may lose their homesThere is something Dickensian about repossession day in our courts. Recently I spent a day Clerkenwell and Shoreditch county cou…

Mortgage lending up 20% in February

Posted by & filed under Banks and building societies, Business, First-time buyers, guardian.co.uk, Housing market, Money, Mortgage lending figures, Mortgage rates, Mortgages, News, Property, UK news.

Rise in first-time buyer numbers behind overall increase in lending for house purchases, CML figures suggestMortgage lending for house purchases was up by 20% year-on-year in February, but lenders said the increase may have been fuelled by changes to s…

Governments should help with mortgages to avoid prolonged slump

Posted by & filed under Borrowing & debt, Business, Economics, Financial crisis, Financial sector, Global economy, guardian.co.uk, IMF, Money, Mortgage arrears, Mortgages, News, UK news, United States, World news.

Rapid buildup of household debt during boom leads to deeper downturn when bubble bursts, World Economic Outlook arguesGovernments should step in to help struggling households write off part of their mortgages in the wake of a financial crisis to avoid …

Preventing another housing bubble must be Bank of England’s priority

Posted by & filed under Analysis, Bank of England, Business, Economics, House prices, Housing, Housing market, Money, Mortgage lending figures, Mortgage rates, Mortgages, Quantitative easing, Society, The Guardian, UK news.

Three boom-busts in 40 years are testimony to the failure of trying to control the housing market through interest rates aloneEaster is traditionally when the housing market comes out of hibernation – and if ever there were a time when it might be im…

Co-operative raises mortgage costs for 54,000 borrowers

Posted by & filed under Banking, Banks and building societies, Business, Co-operative Group, guardian.co.uk, Money, Mortgage rates, Mortgages, News, Property, UK news.

Bank joins Halifax, Bank of Ireland and Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks in raising its standard variable rate, which will rise to 4.74% in MayThe Co-operative Bank has become the latest lender to increase the standard variable rate (SVR) it charges mort…

Nationwide tightens up on interest-only mortgages

Posted by & filed under Banks and building societies, Borrowing & debt, Business, guardian.co.uk, Housing market, Money, Mortgages, Nationwide, News, Property, UK news.

Nationwide slashes LTV on its interest-only deals, raising fears it will leave thousands of borrowers as ‘mortgage prisoners’Nationwide building society has slashed the maximum loan-to-value (LTV) ratio on its interest-only mortgages from 75% to 50%, l…