Essentially Mortgages – Quarter Three 2020

With working from home becoming the new norm for many, it’s likely that a significant number of workers may continue to be wholly or partially home-based after the virus threat subsides.

If just weekly or monthly visits to the office are sufficient, this may give people a greater choice about where they live. No longer does home have to be within commutable distance to the employer’s premises, so priorities such as schools, other local facilities, value for money and a better quality of life may come to the fore. For sheer variety of locations, UK homebuyers are spoilt for choice.

As soon as the property market reopened in May, the industry saw an immediate surge in demand, with visits to property website Rightmove up 18% year on- year on 27 May, its busiest day on record.

With government support schemes due to come to an end later this year and economic uncertainty still very much a feature of this new landscape, what’s next for the market?

have shown that fraudsters are taking advantage of people’s fears at this vulnerable time to get hold of their hard-earned money.

Back in March, the Bank of England slashed the Bank Rate to an all-time low of 0.1% in a bid to help alleviate some of the severe economic pressure caused by the pandemic. As the interest rate cut fed through to mortgage rates, lenders pulled some products from the market.

The pandemic has served as a stark reminder of how our financial wellbeing can be affected without warning and has highlighted the need to have good protection cover in place.

Even if your own personal and financial circumstances haven’t changed as a result of the pandemic, it’s important to regularly review your protection insurance to make sure your policy provides adequate cover for your changing needs.

As the effect of the pandemic on people’s livelihoods became apparent, the government announced a support package to help people stay in their homes. By early June, more than 1.8 million mortgage customers had taken advantage of payment holidays, estimated to average £755 per month.

In the 1980s, a fast-moving property market prompted homeowners to move every eight years. Nowadays, research suggests the average UK homeowner will stay in their property for 21 years.