Mortgages

A Bradford financial adviser has pleaded guilty to taking part in a "calculated and sophisticated" £1.8m mortgage fraud.

Gross mortgage lending fell 13% to an estimated £9.2bn in January from £10.6bn in December, as the market shows little signs of rebounding, according to the CML.

A debt-stricken Coventry estate agent has been jailed for 12 months after stealing more than £69,000 from his clients.

The typical deposit needed by first-time buyers to secure a property has almost trebled in the last three years and now tops £31,000, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

Britain's housing market is set to grind to a halt this year as worried consumers think twice before moving house and banks continue to be wary about lending, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

The average cost of a fixed rate mortgage stands at its highest level in six months as lenders pass on rising funding costs to borrowers.

UK house prices rose by 0.8% in January compared with the previous month, according to figures from the Halifax.

The proportion of mortgage deals needing more than a 25% deposit has fallen to a two-year low.

House prices dipped again last month as the sluggish market activity in evidence since last summer continued into 2011, Nationwide says.

Intriguingly entitled "Product Intervention", the FSA's modest 72-page (including appendices) DP 11/1 could actually be the most explosive read this year.