Credit card borrowing increased in December

Figures that have been released recently have shown that for the month of December the level of credit card borrowing increased, leading to an increase in overall consumer borrowing. Read more

Tags: Value added tax, end, small increase, consumer spending, Credit card, consumer debt, bank of england, sector

Charities Reporting Reduced Donations

The recession has been hitting all parts of the economy and now its effects are being felt by charitable organizations. According to a recent survey, charitable donations have been down by as much as 11% in April alone. Read more

Tags: monies, recession, charity donations, highest salaries, salaries, sector, Voluntary income, long way

Weaker bargaining power for tenants reported

It has been reported that tenants in the UK now have weaker bargaining power when it comes to renting a property, and this is the result of fewer homes coming into the market for rent, according to industry officials. Read more

Tags: National, tenants, sector, RICS, Renting

Many pensioners set to lose their home care facilities

According to a recent report many pensioners in the UK are set to lose their home care facilities such as meals on wheels and help with shopping, washing, and household chores, and this is as a result of government cutbacks. Read more

Tags: Household, old age, Business Finance, pensioner home care, sector, result, home care, pensioners

Recession results in increase in liquidations

Officials from the Insolvency Service have recently reported that there was a sharp increase in the number of companies that went bust in the last three months of last year, as the recession and the global financial crisis continued to take a grip in the UK. Read more

Tags: funding, grip, liquidations, recession, sector, industry, year one

Gazundering becoming more commonplace

With property prices falling, mortgages becoming more difficult to obtain, and homeowners experiencing increased difficulties in selling their homes, the housing sector is already experiencing its fair share of problems. However, a new problem has recently reared up for sellers, and this comes in the form of gazundering, which is an unethical but not illegal practice that some buyers are engaging in. The practice involves putting in an offer on a property, and then dropping the offer right before contracts are exchanged. Read more

Tags: illegal practice, sector, gazundering, recent additions, double gazunder, predicament, country, unethical

Local financial firms more suitable than big banks

The standard of service and level of understanding offered by smaller building societies makes them more user-friendly than their larger counterparts, it has been suggested.

According to the Building Societies Association (BSA), the fact that regionalised companies will have a better knowledge of local markets is clearly to their advantage.

Commenting on the differences between the types, Adrian Coles, the director-general of the BSA said: “We’ve got a really good mixture in the building society sector, but if you’re locally based you really do understand the local market better than the branch manager of a national institution.”

He added: “What are the incentives? High levels of service, better levels of service than banks, understanding of local markets which they’re clearly good at, tailor-made products [and] knowing their customers.”

Recent BSA statistics reveal that 15 million adults have building society saving accounts with the 59 different institutions across the country.

Tags: business, market, director general, Adrian Coles, Canoeing, sector, level, standard

Students should take out content insurance, expert says

Britain’s students were strongly advised today to take out contents insurance on their possessions.

Cooper Healey, who runs Manchester Student Homes – a provider of private sector student accommodation – said that the insurance was important as protection against possible theft.

“There is a chance that you will become a victim of crime,” he said.

Mr Healey added, however, that there was “safety in numbers” in halls of residence “to some extent.

“The fact that [students] are often surrounded by CCTV which acts as a deterrent,” Mr Healey said. “Often they have 24-hour staff on site or otherwise they have a security patrol and security numbers so that does make parents feel very safe about where their child is going to be living.”

There is an increasingly unfavourable financial climate for students to take out perceived “non-essential” cover, however.

Not only are student loans on the rise – which have hit £20,000 for some university entrants this year – but rent is increasing, as well.

In a recent survey by the National Union of Students (NUS), rent was found to have increased by £19 per week on average in the last three years.

Tags: fact, Manchester Student Homes, safety in numbers, student loans, CCTV, sector, education, victim of crime

Landlords remain confident

Confidence among buy-to-let landlords remains very high.

That is according to what Bradford and Bingley is calling the largest and most authoritative landlord survey in the country.

Almost 5,000 people responded to the research, which found that the buy-to-let market is thriving and landlords are confident that it will continue to do so.

A massive 96 per cent revealed that they believe rent levels across the board will either rise or remain the same in the next six months.

In addition, 88 per cent of landlords have plans to either increase or maintain their current portfolio of properties.

All of this, coupled with very few (four per cent) being concerned about low rental yields or availability of tenants makes for a very positive outlook in the market.

“Many of our landlords have been in the market for a long time, with half investing in property for more than five years,” said Bradford and Bingley’s director of mortgages Andy Wiggans.

“Significantly, even those who have been landlords for under four years believe the sector remains strong, with many planning on expanding their portfolios.”

With house prices continuing to rise, more people are renting properties until they can afford to buy. This helps landlords to ensure that their properties are rented out.

Tags: sector, Leasehold estate, investing in property, board, bradford and bingley, landlords, survey, long time

Rental market is growing

The demand for rented accommodation in the UK is reaching record levels.

That is according to Paragon Mortgages, which carried out research and found that a huge majority of landlords are seeing demand for their properties grow.

In total, 92 per cent of respondents say that demand is stable, growing or booming and Paragon claims that this is the second highest level on record.

The mortgage provider says that these results point to a changing housing market with people opting to rent instead of buy due to its affordability and flexibility.

In addition to these figures, Paragon also discovered that landlords’ properties are now empty for less time than previous years, with the average property being without a tenant for just 2.96 weeks per year – a fall of two per cent compared to the last quarter.

“We have been running this survey for five years and have seen a very strong trend of growing tenant demand throughout this period,” commented John Heron, director of Paragon Mortgages.

“But recently, in both our own research and that of others, we’ve seen demand for private rented accommodation hit new peaks.

“Demographic influences that underpin the private rented sector are all continuing to rise, which bodes well for continued healthy growth of the buy-to-let sector,” he added.

If you are interested in buying a property and then renting it out make sure that you shop around for the mortgage that best suits your needs.

Tags: sector, accommodation, level, new peaks, market, rent