Making UK Mortgages More Accessible

Previously, in the UK, if you wanted to apply for a mortgage to buy a new home, the amount that would be lent to you would be automatically tied to how much money you earned. With runaway UK housing prices over the last decade, and with incomes remaining fairly stable, this method of calculating how much you could borrow on a mortgage has become out dated. Today, many new home buyers need to look for more creative ways to borrow money if they want to buy a new home in Britain.

The Affordable Mortgage

Probably the most common of the new forms of mortgage is the affordable mortgage. Unlike mortgage that fixed to your earnings, affordable mortgages are calculated based on how much you can afford to repay each month once you have taken into consideration all of your other expenses. So, for example, if you have recently bought a new car on hire purchase and will be making hire purchase payments for the next three years, these hire purchase payments will be deducted from your salary and what remains will determine whether or not you can afford to repay the mortgage loan. UK affordable mortgage loans have allowed new home buyers to borrow as much as 50 percent of their monthly disposable income in mortgage repayments, which usually gives new home buyers a much better chance of buying a new home.

The Flexible Repayment Mortgage

Growing in popularity is the flexible repayment mortgage. As mentioned, traditional mortgages take into account what you current earnings are, how much you borrow, the interest rate, and then calculates, roughly, a monthly repayment that will be fixed (variable on interest) for the remaining 20 to 30 years of the mortgage term. Real life, however, is not like that. It is highly unlikely that you’ll be earning the same in 10 years time as you earn today. A flexible repayment mortgage takes this into consideration. It allows you increase your mortgage repayments over time. As such, within parameters, you are able to borrow more on your UK mortgage than you earn today on the expectation you’ll be earning more in the future.

The Current Account Mortgage

Strictly speaking, the current account mortgage is not a mortgage at all – it’s an overdraft. As such, it is not restricted by the same lending ratio limits that traditionally apply when applying for a UK mortgage. Nonetheless, so long as you are financially disciplined enough not to be overly concerned with having to live with a large overdraft on a daily basis, this type of new UK home mortgage can mean the difference between being able to buy a house now and having to wait until you have enough of a deposit or a high enough salary to qualify for a traditional UK mortgage.

The world of UK consumer finance is forever evolving. To try and respond to recent demographic changes in the UK, and to ever rising costs of living in the UK, UK credit lenders are having to be more and more ingenious when it comes to obtaining new business. As such, if you find yourself in the position where you simply cannot afford to buy a new home on your current salary, don’t give up, look around and see if you can find a UK home lender who’ll agree to lend you the money to buy your new dream home on more flexible terms and conditions than was previously the case.

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Second Mortgages: What you Need to Know

At times in life it may be necessary to come up with a sum of cash for unexpected expenses or even expenses that you might not be able to afford without a influx of cash. In these cases a second mortgage can come in quite handy. Before taking out a second mortgage; however, you should know how they work and the advantages and disadvantages of second mortgages.

Basically a second mortgage occurs when you take out another mortgage on top of the existing mortgage on your home. This type of loan is secured with the property for collateral. Of course, the first mortgage takes precedence in the event that you default on the loan. Any funds that are left would then be applied to the second mortgage.

Many people commonly use second mortgages for such expenses as home improvements, the purchase of a second or vacation home and to consolidate other debts with a lower interest rate. Of course, you may also be able to use the proceeds of your second mortgage for other options but you should always keep in mind that you are putting your home at risk for the purchase and be sure you can justify the risk for that purpose.

One of the major disadvantages of a second mortgage is that the interest rate will usually be higher than your first mortgage. Lenders insist on higher interest rates because they understand they won’t be the first in line in the event that you default on the loan and they need to protect their assets, so they do this with higher interest rates. Of course, the rates are typically lower than what you could obtain with any other type of loan and much lower than credit cards.

You should also be aware that you’ll typically be responsible for some fairly significant closing costs on second mortgages. If you can’t pay those fees, you may not be able to work out a second mortgage on your property.

Due to the amount of risk involved you need to be absolutely sure you have no other option before taking out such a loan. After all, you are risking the loss of your home, so you should be sure you’re willing to take the risk as well as be relatively sure you can cover the additional loan payments.

If you do decide a second mortgage is the right option for you, be sure to shop around for rates before taking the first one offered to you. You may be able to get better terms or a lower interest rate by shopping around.

Always look over the terms to be sure of what you’re agreeing to pay. One of the most typical arrangements with many second mortgage lenders is to tie what is known as voluntary insurance in with your mortgage. Depending on the level of your current insurance policy, you may not need this additional coverage and cost. In addition, always make sure you know how much you’re paying for closing costs, such as application fees, points to get a lower interest rate and appraisal fees.

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