The Times says there are now 10,000 different mortgages available 33% more than last year and the most since the crash in 2008. Even the self-employed are finding it easier to get a home loan with lenders easing their criteria in the wake of cheap money from low savings rates and the government’s “Funding for Lending”.
Asking prices are at a five-year high and even interest-only mortgages are back, albeit described as “low start” with buyers paying only interest for the first three years then reverting to a traditional repayment mortgage available from Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks.
So lenders are stoking the property bubble and those who cannot really afford to buy and pay realsitic interest rates are being given the means to buy now even though any rises in interest rates or falls in house prices will hurt them later.
So you have to ask, will lenders take up the Help-to-Buy state mortgage indemnity in January? and is it really required, given the fact that lenders are easing criteria to “normal” and lending to anyone who asks?