Mortgage sizes boosted as Help to Buy kicks off
THE SIZE of the average mortgage swelled in October, reaching the highest level against house prices since January 2009, according to figures released by Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) today.
In the month that the second phase of the government’s Help to Buy scheme of mortgage guarantees began, MAB says that the average loan-to-value (LTV) rate accelerated at the fastest one month pace ever recorded, up by 3.3 per cent.
A typical mortgage has now risen to 72.2 per cent of a property’s value, the highest posted since the firm’s records began five years ago.
Even as mortgages bulge, MAB says that the average buyer’s salary across the UK dipped from £39,803 in September to £38,887 last month, raising the question of how much longer it will now take debtors to own their homes outright.
Post Office Mortgages also announced today that a typical home sells in 58 days, 11 fewer than during the same period last year.
Adding to the mountain of evidence that the housing market is heating up most of all in London, the amount of time it takes to sell a home in London has dropped to barely over a month, 32 days, down from 42 last year.
John Wilcock of Post Office Mortgages commented on the findings: “This encouraging fall in the time it now takes to sell a property, especially in areas where house prices have long remained sluggish, shows that real confidence is returning to housing markets in many cities across the UK.”