Page 28 - Redbrik Estate Agents: Winter 2018

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HIGHER HOUSE PRICES FORCE BUYERS TOWARDS 35-YEAR MORTGAGES
Rising house prices and low wage growth have pushed up demand for longer-term mortgages, say brokers.
A poll of brokers and lenders
by the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) has found that 69 per cent have seen an increase in demand for 35-year home loans.
More than three-quarters
of brokers and 74 per cent
of lenders said the increase
in demand for 35-year term mortgages was an “inevitable consequence” of low wage growth and rising house prices, while 16 per cent feared such a long-term length could limit people’s capacity to save for retirement.
INDUSTRY TASKED WITH MAKING HOME-BUYING “FASTER AND LESS STRESSFUL”
Home-buying and selling in England and Wales could be “faster and less stressful” under plans to simplify sales and tackle gazumping.
Communities Secretary Sajid Javid has launched an eight- week review, saying he wanted to “hear from the industry”
on how to streamline home- buying.
Ways of locking in deals and stopping sellers accepting higher o ers at the last minute will be considered.
HELP TO BUY SCHEME EXTENDED UNTIL 2021
The Department for Communities
and Local Government (DCLG) has announced that the Help to Buy Scheme, which was launched in 2013, is to continue until at least 2021. The DCLG statement con rmed that they have committed £8.6 billion towards the Help to Buy Equity Loan Scheme until April 2021.
If buying a newly built home under the Help to Buy scheme, the Government will lend the buyer up to 20 per cent of the cost of the property so the buyer only needs a 5 per cent cash
deposit and a 75 per cent mortgage. In addition, there are no loan fees on the 20 per cent for the rst ve years after the property has been bought. The scheme was originally introduced as a way to boost the housing market, and reduce the main barrier to home ownership which was having to raise a 20 per cent deposit on the property.
The scheme has been received well by rst time buyers in particular and since launching in 2013, it has helped more than 120,000 buyers get onto the property ladder.
END OF THE ‘BACHELOR PAD’ AS ALMOST A THIRD OF MEN LIVE AT THEIR PARENTS’ HOME UNTIL THEIR MID-30S
For young men, moving out of the family home and living independently was once considered a rite of passage.
But the ‘bachelor pad’ could be consigned to the annals of history, as new gures show that almost a third of
men do not move out of their parents’ home until their mid-30s. Now 32 per cent of men aged between 20 and 34 are living with their parents, compared to a fth (20 per cent) of females, according to the O ce for National Statistics’ latest data release on families and households.
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