Mortgages

Two advisers debate the merits (and faults) of equity release

The Liberal Democrats are urging Chancellor George Osborne to include a mansion tax on homes worth £2m or more in his Spring Budget announcement.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published guidelines to push lenders to simplify wording on mortgage contracts that permit switching consumers from interest-only to repayment mortgages.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has barred Direct Line from showing a TV advert again after it was found to have misled consumers.

An interest-only mortgage application should be assessed as though it is a capital-and-interest deal, unless there is a "believable" strategy for repaying the loan that does not rely on house price inflation, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has...

The Financial Services Authority has outlined plans to ease existing borrowers into new affordability proposals enshrined in the latest Mortgage Market Review consultation paper. proposals.

All the key points from the final MMR consultation paper

The ongoing compliance costs of the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) proposals will cost the industry anything between £47m and £170m a year, with one-off implementation costs between £40m and £60m, according to the FSA.

The Financial Services Authority today announced plans to prevent a return of the risky mortgage lending seen in boom times, by proposing what it called "common sense" sales and underwriting standards across the market.

The FSA today proposes to ban non-advised mortgage sales, although all but the 'vulnerable' or those accessing higher-risk products will be able to opt-out of advice or reject it and proceed on an execution-only basis.