The Nationwide Building Society has been looking at the state of the property market with specific regard to flats, which make up around 16 percent of the total UK housing stock.
It found that the average size of a flat is 750 square feet, which is around half the size of the average detached house. They are also much cheaper than a detached house, with the UK average price for a flat standing at approximately GBP136,600. This is, says the Nationwide Building Society, around 25 percent less than the average for all properties combined and so makes it a little easier for first time buyers to get a mortgage for.
Although new build properties are often seen as being smaller than their older counterparts this is not the case with flats. Those built during the 40’s and 50’s tend to be the smallest according to the Nationwide Building Society figures, with new build flats being nearly 10 percent bigger.
,p>Get a great first time buyers Nationwide Building Society mortgage quote and get on the property ladder with a flat.
Liverpool Victoria has just introduced a new Flexible Lifetime Mortgage, accessible to financial advisors through their existing systems.
The Liverpool Victoria mortgage allows customers aged between 60 and 95 to use equity in their property as a cash resource, drawing a minimum of GBP10,000 initially, then in increments of GBP2,000 up to the maximum loan to value amount. Financial advisors will be able to provide quotes for interested parties from their existing Assureweb systems, making it a quick and easy exercise.
Targeting the older end of the market this style of mortgage offered by Liverpool Victoria enables customers to access the value of their home when they may need it most and still retain ownership of the property.
The Abbey National has just released figures showing that, for the first half of the year, they had over a quarter of the UK new mortgage market.
A performance at this level means that the Abbey National could take the title of biggest UK mortgage lender depending on the results posted by its closest competitor next week. With an increase of 17 percent compared with the same time last year the improvement is quite remarkable, especially in the current economic climate. In fact a spokesman from the Abbey was pleased to say that they had taken a risk-averse approach to lending, making the huge increase even more noteworthy.
The successful approach taken by the Abbey National has been to look at lower loan to value business, with borrowers basically needing a bigger deposit. Against this growth it will be interesting to see how the main protagonists in the mortgage market plan to win back market share.