Direct Mortgage Group

21/02/2024

How challenging is affordability for borrowers?
Poor credit profiles and blips impact customers

More customers are failing to meet lenders’ criteria, with affordability one of the biggest challenges facing them, it’s claimed.
This predicament provides an opportunity for brokers to offer support and expand their businesses,
“Affordability continues to be a challenge, More customers are falling outside of mainstream lenders’ policies due to poor credit profiles and blips, meaning they are automatically restricted in dealing with more traditional lenders.
At Direct Mortgage Group we can help all customers whatever their circumstances. Ring us on 01273471616, or email [email protected] and find out how we can help.

20/02/2024

It was nice while it lasted. For six months, Todd Boehly and Chelsea seemed to have forgotten their obsession with the Albion and left Amex Stadium alone.
Having paid Brighton the best part of £230m for nine members of staff over the previous year, had the Blues finally learned their lesson that you cannot replicate the Seagulls’ success simply by throwing a huge amount of money around?
No appears to be the answer. Boehly is bringing Albion head of recruitment Sam Jewell to Stamford Bridge - just 15 months after he took Jewell’s predecessor as Albion head of recruitment, Paul Winstanley, to Stamford Bridge.
While the rest of football wonders why Tony Bloom always allows personnel to leave - as long as what he considers a good deal for Brighton is agreed - the answer to that question is very simple.
The people at the Amex are only cogs in a machine. It is the culture Bloom and deputy chairman Paul Barber have created at Brighton, and the systems in place, which allow the Albion to punch well above their weight (and sit above Chelsea in the Premier League table).
This is especially true of the recruitment department, which is so successful thanks to Bloom’s data-driven approach and algorithms. And while Winstanley and now Jewell are aware of how parts of the model work, Bloom is famously secretive and untrusting about letting anyone know how it all fits together.
It means that when Jewell goes, another head of recruitment - probably an internal appointment, in this case assistant technical director Mike Cave, assistant technical director - takes over. The wheel keeps turning and, in 15 months' time, Chelsea will probably try to poach the successor.
At some point, Boehly might realise the only way he can turn Chelsea into Chelsea & Hove Albion is by signing Bloom. And Bloom is not for sale... we

When will you learn Boehly ??

You're just a property developer and you have conned Chelsea football club. Stamford Bridge sold would be a nice return!!!

13/02/2024

One in four mortgage holders using credit to afford payments
44% of mortgage holders are finding it difficult to keep up with bills and credit commitments. You don't have to be one of them. Contact Direct Mortgage Group for a solution today

Call now to connect with business.

09/01/2023

It certainly was an extraordinary year, and not always for the right reasons. We’ve seen the bank base rate rise to 3.5% - the highest it’s been since 2008 – after eight consecutive increases, inflation soaring to its highest rate since 1981 at 11.1%, and the price of an average UK property increase to a record-high of nearly £300,000. And that’s not all. We’ve witnessed three Prime Ministers, four Chancellors of the Exchequer and the short-lived ‘Trussonomics’ experiment. The less said about September’s mini-budget the better!
We’ve also experienced an unprecedented surge in demand from customers desperately looking to find mortgage products to enable them to fix their payments amid fears of further interest rate rises. I’m pleased to be able to say that things appear to be returning to normal.

More than half of homeowners with a fixed, tracker or discount mortgage will need their deals renewed in the next two years. The Bank of England report headline inflation is likely to start falling in the second half of 2023.

Direct Mortgage Group are still here to help you and guide you through these difficult times whatever your requirements. We have embraced new systems to make our client experience easier and more efficient. We have recently introduced a new secure digital system for client information. This will make the process quicker and more transparent and enable us to offer more services to our customers.

03/02/2022

Lenders line up to raise rates following BoE decision

Soon after the Bank of England (BoE) announced it would raise its base rate by 0.25 per cent to 0.50 per cent to rein in inflation, lenders across the UK announced similar increases for existing variable rates.
Among them, Nationwide Building Society said members who held its base mortgage rate (BMR) loans on or before 29 April 2009 or held its standard mortgage rate (SMR) products on or after 30 April 2009 would see an increase of 0.25 per cent.
That translates to higher rates of 2.50 per cent for the BMR and 3.99 per cent for the SMR, which would take effect on 1 March.
From the same date, existing Nationwide borrowers with a tracker mortgage would see their rate rise the same as the BoE increase of 0.25 per cent.
The lender said it would analyse what the BoE increase starting 1 March would mean for savers.
Earlier, Nationwide announced it was increasing the interest it paid on several of its savings accounts by at least 0.15 per cent as of 1 February on its on children’s and regular savings accounts, the Society’s Help to Buy ISA, and its loyalty accounts.

Savers could benefit
Principality Building Society also said it would increase rates by 0.25 per cent for existing account holders of its variable rate savings products on 1st March and that its existing base rated tracker products would be replaced on 8 February to reflect the BoE decision.
It said holders of more than 400,000 Principality savings accounts would see an increase in rates next month and that on average, it paid 0.71 per cent across all its savings accounts compared to the market average of 0.29 per cent. It said the fixed rate bond and ISA range would continue to be reviewed independently of variable rates.
Morgan Miles, head of product pricing at Principality BS, said: “It has been a tough few years for savers given the low rate environment, so we’re happy to be able to increase the interest rates of our savings products. We have tried to support savers as much as possible, maintaining an average interest rate on our accounts which has been consistently higher than the market average.”
Skipton Building Society said it would be changing rates in light of the new BoE base rate.
And Platform, the mortgage arm of The Co-operative Bank, said it was reviewing its standard variable rate which is currently 4.49 per cent and would alert borrowers to any changes.
Santander said that for existing borrowers, all tracker mortgage products linked to the base rate would change from the beginning of March, including its Follow-on Rate (FoR), which would rise from 3.50 per cent to 3.75 per cent.
Santander and Alliance & Leicester’s standard variable rates are set to rise from 4.49 per cent to 4.74 per cent from the beginning of March.
While not citing specific rates, Halifax said it would write to customers with mortgages affected by the BoE rate change to let them know their new monthly payment before it was due.

01/02/2022

Almost half of equity release borrowers clearing mortgages
Almost half (46%) of equity release customers used the money to clear an existing mortgage in 2021

"We’ve also seen a steady rise in people turning to equity release in order to cover their daily living expenses, the demand likely being driven by the current cost of living crisis."
This is the fourth year running that clearing the remainder of a mortgage has held the top spot.
This was followed by a third (34%) of borrowers seeking to make home improvements in order to add extra value or enjoyment to the property.
Almost a fifth of customers were looking to equity release to help them support the costs of day-to-day living, the first time it has entered the top three.
Customers also continued to use equity release to make substantial one-off purchases such as buying a new property (15%), booking a holiday (12%) or buying a car (11%).

01/02/2022

Potential base rate could increase annual mortgage bill by over £300

The potential base rate increase to 0.5 per cent this week could increase annual mortgage bills by over £300.

According to research from Moneyfacts, which was based on a £250,000 mortgage over a 25-year term and if its average rate went up by 0.25 per cent, monthly remortgage repayments could be around £28.41 higher if the base rate was 0.5 per cent.
This would mean that over the course of the year a borrower would end up paying £341.28 more than before.
This is based on average rate pre-increase being 4.41 per cent and the average rate post-increase being 4.66 per cent.
Economists have said that there is a high chance, around 95 per cent, that the base rate could be increased to 0.5 per cent at the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee’s meeting on Thursday.
This would take base rates to their highest level since 2009, and the higher mortgage rates could dampen the housing market and increase payments for borrowers.

01/02/2022

New equity release customers will be able to mitigate the costs of borrowing in later life through a product safeguard launched by the Equity Release Council (ERC).
From 28 March 2022, all customers taking out lifetime mortgages that meet the council’s standards will be guaranteed the right to make penalty-free partial repayments.
This means new customers can reduce their borrowing, as well as offset the interest, without making any ongoing commitment to further repayments.

08/09/2021

As we finally move forward after this terrible and uncertain time now is the time to review your mortgage requirements, as rates are under 1% , and review protection and your Will needs in these difficult times. Contact Direct Mortgage Group on 01273 471616 and we can review and advise on your situation as we are whole of market brokers with access to all UK lending sources. Call now. It will be the best call you make for peace of mind and save you money