Mortgages

The majority of first-time buyers are in nearly £6,000 of debt and yet hope to get their foot on the housing ladder in the next two years, reveals a report from Alliance & Leicester Mortgages.

August's interest rate rise has done nothing to dampen house price inflation if the latest figures released by Nationwide Building Society are to be believed.

Exchange Insurance last week launched the exchange bond which it claimed would make the problems a thing of the past for homebuyers needing cash to secure a property exchange.

Individual consumer debt in the UK is double that in other Western European nations and is responsible for a third of all unsecured debt in the region, according to the latest research report from Datamonitor.

The Mortgage Trading Exchange has stolen a march on Origo, by opening its electronic trading standards to enable them to integrate with other trading platforms.

Regulation has resulted in consumers actively shopping around for mortgages, according to the Financial Services Authority's review of the mortgage regime.

Gross mortgage lending was a record £20.9bn in August, some 9% higher than July and 24% higher than the £16.8bn in August last year, latest figures from the British Bankers' Association reveal.

So now the government wants to talk to the mortgage industry about green mortgages - that should be an interesting conversation.

United Trust Bank has introduced a new online portal targeted at the increasing number of mortgage brokers and IFAs it says are seeking residential short-term bridging loans for clients.

The average house price is above the inheritance tax threshold of £285,000 in 10% of English towns, new research from Halifax claims.