Financial Services

Top Tips On Buying A Home As we officially emerge from the longest ever UK recession with a forecasted 0.1% growth in GDP in quarter four of 2009. January 2010 has started with a positive financial position and all sectors of the economy are looking for growth. The housing market sector is no exception and estate agents are also forecasting a more positive year in 2010 than in 2009. Estate agents have seen an increased level of viewings and sales of home already compared to January 2009 sales figures. However the market is still cautious as estate agents have not seen so far a sharp increase of instructions. The lack of instructions does mean that property prices are holding and some regional areas of the country have seen increased property prices. With the banks still not willing to lend as easily as before the recession and the removal of thousands of mortgage products it is becoming essential that home buyers save for a large deposit. Alternatively there are New Home offerings with various sales promotions such as deposits and stamp duty pre-paid by the developer and or shared ownership schemes. As the number of mortgage products has been more than halved over the last two years you may think that it is easier to shop around for the best mortgage product. In some way that is true however due to the state of the financial markets and future uncertainty of the outcome of the UK general election as well as foreign financial market stability banks and building societies have many products that offer the same if not very similar rates which is confusing. The advice is to shop around and compare different products that best suits your own individual circumstances and seek out and ask advice from an independent mortgage advisor. The financial markets believe that there is the likely that an increase in the interest rate will take place but not until after the general election in May as no large financial institutions want to look like they are politically bias. Therefore this is a good time to look at your current mortgage deal if you are already on the property ladder. Overpayment and reducing the life of your mortgage can save you thousands of pounds in interest payments a year. Times that by the average 25 year mortgage and you can save yourself a serious amount of money. Although the cost of purchasing a home is high for a first time buyer see if you can explore the opportunity of shortening the term of the mortgage by paying a little more than the minimum each month. If this is not an option it is also worth checking if you have to pay a penalty charge for paying large one off deposit amounts off your mortgage as some products require you to pay an additional levied charge for the privilege. The best advice is to save as much as you can, shop around for the best mortgage product that suits your circumstances and ask an independent financial advisor about the small print.