House price increase seen in March

Figures released by the High Street lender, Nationwide, have indicated that there was an increase on property prices for the month of March, with property prices increasing by more than £3000 according to the figures. Officials from Nationwide have added, however, that the annual rate of inflation on house prices is set to slow down from its current 9 percent.

In the month of February average property prices fell by 0.8 percent according to Nationwide, but in the month of March property values bounded back with an increase of 0.7 percent. In price terms this reflected an actual rise of 2 percent before any seasonal adjustments were taken into account.

The decrease in property prices that was seen in February resulted from a slowdown in demand and a drop in the number of mortgage approvals. This was partly attributed to the end of the stamp duty holiday, which had caused more people to push through property sales at the end of last year and caused an unusually profound dip at the start of this year.

Nationwide has stated that the average property price in the UK is now £164,519, and compared to February of 2009 this was £16,733 higher. However, quarterly house price inflation has fallen from 3.8 percent seen in September to 1.6 percent in March.

An economist from Nationwide stated: ‘The last two months are consistent with a relatively flat profile for house prices, and in line with the recent drops seen in buyer enquiries and house sales. Preliminary figures show that the number of loans taken out for house purchases failed to recover from January’s large dip, suggesting that weakness in house sales at the start of the year may have been due to more than just the snowy weather.’

Tags: prices, property, price inflation, stamp, rise, annual rate, house, nationwide

Nationwide pleased about BIS decision

The credit card industry in the UK has been at the centre of a major crackdown recently, with government officials and regulators looking at ways to make things fairer for the consumer when it comes to credit card repayments. Recent proposals from the government were put forward to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, and amongst the various suggestions that were put forward was an important issue relating to the allocation of repayments. Read more

Tags: building, order, various suggestions, credit card debt, nationwide, Business Innovation, BIS, credit card repayments

Warning on house prices from Nationwide

One of the UK’s major lenders, the Nationwide Building Society, recently sent out a stark warning with regards to house prices in the UK, painting a bleak and gloomy picture of what homeowners and the housing market in general has to face over the coming couple of years. Officials from the building society are expecting things to get markedly worse before they get better in the housing market. Read more

Tags: halifax, value mortgages, principal focus, nationwide, building society, borrowers, house prices, price

Nationwide tightens mortgage criteria

Nationwide, the UK’s second biggest mortgage lender, has increased the deposit needed by new borrowers to a minimum of ten per cent on all except two of its products. Read more

Tags: Mortgages, director for mortgages, nationwide, loan, nationwide mortgages

‘Disappointing Budget’ does not encourage savers to use Isas

The new Budget from Alistair Darling is “disappointing” as it does not encourage savers to use Individual Savings Accounts (Isas), one financial expert has claimed.

According to Nationwide, the Chancellor could have gone further in promoting the product to consumers by ensuring that they were more flexible, and index-linking them to inflation.

A spokesman for the company said: “Additionally, we would have liked to have seen the Chancellor introduce a withdrawal buffer that allows savers to make withdrawals and replenish their Isa within the same tax year, as this would particularly help people on lower incomes.”

The firm said it hoped that Mr Darling would do more to re-evaluate the Isa system in future budgets to try and encourage consumers to make full use of their Isa allowance and embrace the tax-efficient benefits they bring.

Meanwhile, according to the Daily Telegraph, recent research from Lloyds TSB revealed millions of savers are missing out on tax-free interest as nine in ten Brits fail to make the most of their individual Isa allowances.

Tags: incomes, Telegraph, tax-efficient benefits, nationwide, United Kingdom, withdrawal buffer, Brits, Product Recall

Buy-to-let sector remains upbeat

The optimism in the buy-to-let sector has not been deterred by predictions of a moderating property market, according to industry experts.

Research from the Association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA) has revealed that only one in ten of landlords are considering selling their property.

A further 40 per cent of investors are looking to expand their property portfolios over the next year.

Ian Potter, head of operations at ARLA, said: “This is good news for the whole of the private rented sector and for the housing market, particularly as it comes from surveys carried out well after the credit crunch had begun to bite.”

The findings also show that 90 per cent of buy-to-let landlords also have no intention of selling up in the last quarter of 2007 within the next 17 years.

Meanwhile, house prices in the UK increased by just one per cent in the final quarter of 2007, according to research released today by the Nationwide building society.

Tags: nationwide, quarter, last quarter, research, 17 years

Consumers can enjoy new home insurance deal from bank

One of the nation’s leading building societies, the Nationwide, has recently launched a new home insurance package that offers a number of benefits to consumers.

Home insurance is a popular and important form of insurance cover, and is designed to protect consumers from the financial losses associated with their home and their belongings. Many people claim on their home insurance each year for anything from flood damage and accidental damage to theft or loss.

According to recent reports the Nationwide is offering a special deal where consumers can enjoy substantial savings when they sign up for home and contents insurance cover as a bundle package. Although these insurance types are available as separate products most insurance companies offer s discount to consumers taking both as a bundle, which enables the consumer to enjoy increased convenience and lower premiums.

Officials from the Nationwide have stated that consumers that opt for this new insurance cover will be able to enjoy improved customer services and well as better cover. The cover can include unlimited cover on buildings cover and cover for items in the garden. Consumers are advised to familiarise themselves with what the policy covers before they sign up, as this will enable them to check that the cover is suited to their needs before they make a commitment.

Nationwide is so confident about this insurance product that it if offering up to £100 refund on the difference of better cover can be found for the same premium elsewhere. The cover offered by the building society will also cover students in the family that are living in student accommodations. Customers that pay by monthly instalments will not incur fees for the privilege of paying on a monthly basis.

Tom Smith
31st October 2007

Tags: savings, cover, Insurance, benefits, home, nationwide

Government wants longer term fixed rate mortgages to be available

The government, under new prime minister Gordon Brown, has announced that it wants more longer term fixed rate mortgages to be made available in light of the five recent interest rate hikes that have left homeowners struggling to keep up with rising repayments and have made the prospect of purchasing a home even more difficult for first time buyers on a limited budget.

Alistair Darling, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, has stated that longer term fixed rate mortgages are more important than ever in light of the current state of the economy, as these will enable property purchasers and homeowners to benefit from stable repayments that will make financial management easier and reduced the risk of crippling repayments stemming from further interest rate rises.

Earlier in the week Alistair Darling stated: ‘When you look around the rest of Europe, it is more common to have longer-term fixed rates. We need to look at that. We need to reduce the volatility.’ He also spoke of the profits that some brokers and lenders are making by offering shorter time fixed rates that have to be renewed every few years, netting them thousands of pounds in profit: ‘Brokers want you to come back every two years, rather than every ten or 20. The Financial Services Authority has identified this as a problem.’

In light of the announcement made by government officials the Nationwide Building Society has just announced the launch of a 25 year fixed rate mortgage. However, there are concerns over how many people will want to take on a fixed rate over such a long period in case interest rates start to fall.

Tom Smith
31st July 2007

Tags: Mortgages, rate, Loans, fixed, interest

Woman furious over overdraft fees

A twenty year old university student recently expressed her anger over her building society’s failure to contact her about a tiny overdraft balance that went on to accrue months of expensive fees.

The woman stated that her account with the Nationwide Building Society was just 95p overdrawn after she wrote a cheque. However, whilst she was away studying at university the building society added charges to the overdraft on a monthly basis. When she arrived back from university some months later, the customer stated that she discovered that £250 in fees had been added to her student account.

According to the customer the Nationwide had been adding £20 each month to the account because of the outstanding 95 pence, but had made no attempt to contact her to let her know the situation.

She stated: ‘I had no idea the account, which I had not used in ages, was overdrawn. I was away at university for long periods of time.’

She added:  ‘When I returned I found a massive pile of letters from the Nationwide waiting for me and an overall overdraft of almost £250. I was pretty angry with them because they had not tried to contact me by phone and it was quite obvious the account was not being used. They said my credit rating could have been affected which would have been bad so I decided to do something about it.’

The customer stated that she contacted Nationwide regarding the fees, but the building society said it was only prepared to waive fifty percent of the fees that had been charged. The customer then went to her local MP about the situation, and as a result of this the total fee was finally waived but the building society also closed her account.

Tom Smith
4th July 2007

Tags: bank, nationwide, charge, building, account

Banks top mortgage lenders table

Banks remained the cheapest mortgage lenders for existing borrowers in 2006.

That is according to a new study by financial research company Defaqto, which also discovered that there was a huge difference between the cheapest and most expensive.

There was a difference of almost £500 between some mortgages, with HSBC being named the cheapest for standard variable rate mortgages or their equivalent.

HSBC was closely followed by Intelligent Finance, while the next three in the top five were building societies (Skipton, Nationwide and Britannia).

“Despite two Bank of England base rate increases last year, on average they did not change significantly from 2005 so it’s not surprising that it cost virtually the same to service a standard variable rate mortgage in 2006 as it did in 2005,” commented David Black, head of banking at Defaqto.

“While it is recognised that standard variable rate mortgages are only one type of mortgage, they can represent an important benchmark in competitiveness.

“This demonstrates why borrowers must take the time to check that they have the most appropriate mortgage,” he added.

The research was based on the amount of gross interest payable on a £50,000 interest-only mortgage and specialist providers, privilege and loyalty rates were not included.

Tags: Banking, mortgage lenders, bank, interest rates, nationwide, Mortgage loan, Defaqto, banks

Nationwide puts an end to ’same mortgage’ deal promise to its existing customers

Despite the fact that the UK’s fourth largest mortgage lender has run a very public and prolonged promotional campaign based around its promise of giving exactly the same deal to its existing mortgage customers as it does to first-time buyers, come 1 December the Nationwide’s existing 1.2 million mortgage customers will no longer be given such treatment.

In what many are seeing as incredible marketing blunder, the Nationwide has announced that with effect from the 1 December it will no longer continue to treat its existing UK mortgage customers the same as it does new ones.  Henceforth, existing mortgage customers who want to re-mortgage, switch to a better deal, or borrow against the equity in their homes will be faced with higher interest rates than customers looking to buy new homes.

Unlike its main rivals, the Nationwide has long prided itself on the fact that it will not discriminate against existing customers, but with the new rates coming into effect from 1 December, Nationwide customers wishing to re-mortgage, switch to better deals, or simply borrow more on their equity will now face the prospect of two-tier interest rates that range from 4.73% for house purchases to 5.88% for re-mortgages.

In its defence, the Nationwide are claiming that the change to their policy is in-line with the UK home lending market’s trend of offering “slightly better rates” for home-movers.  This may be so, but for a UK home mortgage lender that has built such a public image around its promise of offering the same service to both existing customers and new customers, Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at Charcol, the mortgage broker, says, “There’s no way you can legitimately claim you’re offering the same deals for everybody if your existing customers don’t have access to the cheaper purchase rates.”

If it is any consolation, existing Nationwide customers will be entitled to receive a £100 discount off the reservation fee if the decide to switch from one Nationwide home mortgage product to another, or if they elect to increase the amount of their UK mortgage loan.  Nationwide also agreed to waive its re-mortgage administration fee of £99 for existing customers who re-mortgage.

Nonetheless, as Melaine Bien, associate director of Savills Private Finance comments, although the changes allow Nationwide to “become more competitive with its pricing when attracting first-time buyers,” the promise that no-one would receive preferential treatment at the Nationwide “no loner stands”.

Tags: offers, interest, remortgages, nationwide, forst, Mortgages, cost, time, deal