As I sometimes seem to write myself into exhaustion we have a guest writer today which I reckon should be a regular event, not just to get me off the hook but because our Bristol office is very important to us and we should not forget there is life outside London! So here is the very wonderful Sarah Fox-Clinch aka Foxy!
Whilst out with one of my London colleagues last night, the subject of the Severn Bore came up. He was eager to see it although thought it was called ‘The Bristol Surge’. Londoners eh? As I chuckled to myself, it got me onto thinking about how we really have seen a surge of interest in the market in recent weeks. Lets hope this continues.
I actually had a client who was outbid on a property the other day. I can’t remember the last time that happened!
I also thought it prudent to give you all a heads up on general lending policy as this has really changed quite dramatically over the last few months. Basically, lenders are scared of high loan to value and new build properties. Put the two together and it’s coronary time.
The maximum lending on a new build property is now 85%. A couple of lenders will take a 5% builders incentive in the deposit funds although most are very wary of this. New build Buy to Lets are tricky. We are looking at around 65% maximum loan to value on a new build. Studio flats and anything above commercial premises can also cause problems so be mindful when marketing these properties. Residentially speaking, 90% borrowing is available on a purchase however, the rate has to be fixed for 5 years and the mortgage has to be arranged on a repayment basis.
So, what else is new? Well, the dreaded ‘dual pricing’ is back. gggrrrrr. Basically this is where lenders offer lower rates through their direct channels than they offer through brokers. These tend to be on the higher loan to value products. I have lost a couple of deals to this however, will wait and see if the clients come back as from what I hear, lenders have very strict credit scoring and criteria on many of these products, so getting a mortgage through to offer may not be as easy as it seems.
That’s it for now as I am off to surf the Bristol Surge!!
Sarah