Essentially Home Loans Weblog

According to the latest quarterly regional house price report by Halifax, the house price inflation between the North and the South of England has expanded with the average property in London now costing around £300,000.  According to the report the cost of the average home in London rose by 4.9% between April and June of [...]

A study by Scottish Widows announced that the number of graduates forced to borrow funds from their parents has more than doubled over the past ten years.  It is estimated that £2 billion is owed to parents. The average loan for those who have turned to their parents for fund amounts to £12,188, however many [...]

The recent housing boom has shed light on the current cost of moving.  Evidence suggests that the cost of moving has ‘tripled in the last ten years. The increases in real estate agent fees and stamp duty taxes and the actually moving costs have driven the average cost of moving threefold and reach an average [...]

The single most important thing that you should do when you are thinking of moving house is to plan ahead. Buying and selling a home can be a process that many of us are unfamiliar with and that will be filled with hidden costs. It can also be a very stressful period. If you are [...]

An article on the Motley Fool debates the merits of offset mortgages. It explains that offset mortgages are like flexible mortgage but with a savings account linked to the mortgage account. Borrowers use the savings to reduce the balance on their mortgage, so that they pay interest on a lower amount. This means that offset [...]

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has revealed large differences in first time buyers’ liability for stamp duty across the UK. Four out of five (82 per cent) first time buyers in northern England escape paying stamp duty on their first home, compared with just one in 33 (3 per cent) in London. In the [...]