Mortgages

Leeds Building Society is to cut its fixed rate mortgages by up to 0.5% from today.

Local councils have called for the Treasury to allow them to offer competitive mortgage deals in a bid to revive the housing market.

More than three million borrowers have had a mortgage or loan application refused over the past 18 months, according to GE Money Home Lending.

Gross mortgage lending was an estimated £24.8bn in July, up 5% on June but down 27% from July a year ago, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The Labour Party will suffer a landslide vote against it unless it intervenes immediately to stem sinking activity in the housing market, according to Wolsey Securities.

Shareholders in Alliance & Leicester (A&L) are preparing to vote on the firm's proposed £1.3bn acquisition by Banco Santander.

A record number of would-be property sellers are opting to let instead as the housing gloom takes hold, a survey suggests.

An apparent price war between the UK's two biggest lenders represents "great news" for the stalled housing market, experts argue.

A website enabling visitors to search for whole of market mortgage advisers has been launched.

The decline in the number of UK mortgage products has bottomed out after a drop of 50,000, research suggests.