House prices are continuing to languish in the doldrums in most parts of the country other than London and the South East and they are still falling in areas such as the North West, Yorkshire and Humberside.
With the recent news that the UKs credit rating has been downgraded and a warning that economic growth will remain ‘sluggish’ throughout the year ahead, there is nothing on the horizon to suggest that house prices are suddenly going to pick up once again. On the contrary, a number of industry commentators believe there is still room for further prices falls before they finally bottom-out.
However, every cloud has a silver lining and the winners in today’s housing market are buyers; either individuals looking to get a foot on the housing ladder or investors wanting to add to their existing property portfolios.
The only fly in the ointment is the availability of finance.
For some, such as first time buyers, the lack of a deposit has been a stumbling block. For property investors, maximum LTVs of 75% and tougher criteria have held them back.
The good news is that these issues are now starting to be addressed, as the market adapts to the ‘new norm’.
Here at Aldermore, for example, our maximum LTV on buy-to-let mortgages is now 80% and we allow capital raising up to our product maximum LTV. Our rates start at just 4.48% and all applications are assessed on their own merits. We can help landlords either wanting to remortgage an existing portfolio or raise capital to buy an additional property.
We have also recently launched a let-to-buy option which enables homeowners who are struggling to sell a property to let it out, whilst they take advantage of lower property prices to buy a new home. Let-to-buy is an option on all our buy-to-let products.
Lower property prices are generally regarded as bad news but there are always winners and losers. At the moment buyers are definitely on the winning side.
