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Fall of 100% mortgage 'bad for FTBs'
04/03/2008
Solicitors are even less likely to see first-time buyers (FTBs) in Belfast and Northern Ireland able to afford a mortgage now that 100 per cent-plus deals are disappearing.
With house prices in Belfast and Northern Ireland spiralling out of control last year, one of the methods that solicitors saw clients using to get onto the property ladder was taking out a mortgage with a value equal to or greater than their home.
But now that lenders are withdrawing their 100 per cent-plus mortgage offers, solicitors are once again seeing FTBs priced out of the housing market in Belfast and Northern Ireland.
Louise Cuming, head of mortgages at moneysupermarket.com, said that although people criticised lenders for originally bringing out 100 per cent-plus mortgages, now that they are disappearing FTBs may have no options left to get onto the property ladder.
"If you ask some of the lenders, they'll say that they're damned when they do and damned when they don't," Ms Cuming said. "When they bought them out, everybody jumped on them and said they were controversial; and now they've taken them away we're all saying: 'Heaven help the poor first-time buyers'."
"My personal view is that they were good products," she added. "I felt quite confident that the lenders were targeting the right people and doing the right credit checks.
"So I'm personally very disappointed that that particular avenue has been closed to a lot of people - it's yet another door closed for first-time buyers, which is making it harder and harder to get new lifeblood into the mortgage industry."
In future solicitors may see clients in Belfast and Northern Ireland able to use 100 per cent-plus mortgages to get onto the property ladder, but Ms Cuming said this is unlikely to happen within the next year.
Contact us for legal advice
With house prices in Belfast and Northern Ireland spiralling out of control last year, one of the methods that solicitors saw clients using to get onto the property ladder was taking out a mortgage with a value equal to or greater than their home.
But now that lenders are withdrawing their 100 per cent-plus mortgage offers, solicitors are once again seeing FTBs priced out of the housing market in Belfast and Northern Ireland.
Louise Cuming, head of mortgages at moneysupermarket.com, said that although people criticised lenders for originally bringing out 100 per cent-plus mortgages, now that they are disappearing FTBs may have no options left to get onto the property ladder.
"If you ask some of the lenders, they'll say that they're damned when they do and damned when they don't," Ms Cuming said. "When they bought them out, everybody jumped on them and said they were controversial; and now they've taken them away we're all saying: 'Heaven help the poor first-time buyers'."
"My personal view is that they were good products," she added. "I felt quite confident that the lenders were targeting the right people and doing the right credit checks.
"So I'm personally very disappointed that that particular avenue has been closed to a lot of people - it's yet another door closed for first-time buyers, which is making it harder and harder to get new lifeblood into the mortgage industry."
In future solicitors may see clients in Belfast and Northern Ireland able to use 100 per cent-plus mortgages to get onto the property ladder, but Ms Cuming said this is unlikely to happen within the next year.
Contact us for legal advice
