News is the number of repossessions are down this quarter as well as the number of buy to let mortgages in arrears.  This is excellent news and further sign of recovery.

 

What is not up is actual lending.  It is quite apparent the difference between lending now and back then:

 

Q3 2007 - £12.4bn

Q2 2009 - £1.9bn

 

So back in the day they were lending 6 times as much money.  That is like 6 people walking in to a bank branch and only one of them getting a mortgage.  Whereas all 6 would have got a mortgage back in 2007.

 

Funny thing is bank bonuses are up so they must be making some money.  So all this reduced lending must have repaired their balance sheets by now.  Will they start lending?

 

Rumour has it that there is a 90% residential mortgage to be launched by one of the majors at a sensible rate.  Let us see how widely it becomes available.

 

I hope you are keeping your eye on the market and watching which way prices are going.  From where I am viewing asking prices have definitely gone up down south.  North is not the same story.  So if you still want a bargain they are still out there.

 

If you want us to help you acquire a cash flow positive property let me know.

 

Ajay

Posted on: 16th Aug 2009