Buy to let mortgages are fairly similar to residential mortgages, the main difference is that for most buy to let mortgages the affordability calculation is based on the estimated rental income the property can expect to obtain and not the private income of the applicant or applicants.

Houses, flats and apartments are all popular types of property that are purchased as investment property and rented out to tenants. Also popular are shops and other retail units that are often purchased using funds raised by a commercial mortgage. As for a buy to let mortgage, commercial mortgages also calculate affordability based on the estimated rental income of the property.

It has been more difficult to obtain finance since the credit crunch. It has therefore been more difficult to obtain buy to let mortgages as finance institutions changed their lending criteria to make it more stringent. Buy to let mortgage lending has changed in that the loan to values have decreased, any bad credit history is less acceptable, arrangement fees have increased and despite the low Bank of England base rate the interest, rates for buy to let and commercial mortgages have increased.

Buy to let mortgage calculators are available online to help you work out how much a buy to let mortgage may cost each month on either an interest only or repayment option.

Currently there are less buy to let mortgage providers in the market than there were before the credit crunch. However the lenders are starting to become slightly more competitive as more funds are starting to become available to them. There is a fairly wide range of buy to let mortgage facilities available on the market. The best rates are obtained at loan to values of 60% or less. Most lenders offer buy to let mortgages up to 75% and there are limited plans offering facilities as high as 85%. Generally the higher the loan to value required the greater the interest rate and arrangement costs. Also above 75% there maybe additional criteria such as the applicant may already need to have one or more buy to let mortgages, so these facilities are not suitable for the first time landlord. Despite being excellent rental properties flats and apartments can also have buy to let mortgage restrictions. For flats and apartments the maximum loan to value available for buy to let mortgages is 75%, and for new build flats this can be further reduced to 65%.

The bridging loan needs to be repaid and this can be done by selling the property. Although there are costs in setting up a bridging loan, this may well be a cheaper option than taking out a mortgage facility due to the initial setting up costs and arrangement fees associated with mortgage facilities, not forgetting the additional costs that can be incurred for clearing the mortgage early due to the high early redemption charges that often apply.

Purchasing a property at auction can frequently mean that the property has been purchased for a price below its open market value. Now that the property is owned the amount of money that can be raised by means of a remortgage may be greater than the amount that could have been raised by a mortgage to purchase the property. This is because the mortgage provider will now lend based on the property valuation, whereas when purchasing they would only be able to lend based on the purchase price. The remortgage will also provide the funds required to clear the bridging finance facility.

When looking to secure finance on property that is in a poor state of repair more traditional forms of lending may come with many conditions attached or may not be available at all. Bridging loans can be secured on derelict properties that are in poor or bad condition. Furthermore, a bridging loan can often be the only way of raising money secured on a property in a poor state of repair. The money raised by the bridging finance facility can be used to purchase the property or if already owned a bridging loan is an excellent way of raising the funds required to carry out repair and restoration work. Once the property has been repaired or modernised it is reasonable to assume that its value should have increased. Furthermore now that the property is no longer derelict or in a poor sate of repair more traditional forms of finance should now be available. Therefore the owner of the property now has the option of selling the property in order to repay the bridging loan, or alternatively remortage and take out a more suitable long term facility that will raise enough money to repay the bridging loan and provide the owner with any additional funds that maybe required.

According to recent surveys to has shown that with all this good weather in April there has been a rise in the number of UK home buyers viewing more properties.
However, for many potential buyers they are finding it hard to secure a mortgage and only the people buying in cash, were being able to take advantage of the lower prices.
The expected decrease in house prices that some surveyors think will happen in the next few months are out-numbering those who think not.
For the housing market spring normally is a busier time of year, both Sales and supply and demand properties all become higher in April.
Michael Newey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said that, “The return of sellers to the market is positive, but activity still remains subdued and it is difficult to see it picking up materially over the coming months”.
There are some signs that companies are become slightly less strict with particular mortgages, especially with first time buyers. But however it will be a long time before lending levels increase enough for a big impact.

Conveyancing Alliance Ltd started the reports when instructions for remortgage started to increase. The market has really started to improve as there has been continuous believes that the Bank base rate will be increasing throughout the year. Conveyancing Alliance Ltd offered a Rapid remortgage which they seen was a huge success which is another reason for them conducting a report on the current market.

Purchase instructions have risen also and this was found out by the company throughout much business within the estate agent side.

Conveyancing Alliance Ltd “is pleased to announce on-going improvements to levels of both remortgage and purchase instructions. The remortgage market continues to show signs of improvement”

Managing Director of the company has said, “Based on Aprils figures and anticipated levels for the next two months we fully expect further increases in both purchase and remortgage instructions.”

A report by corporate recovery experts has said that there are serious financial problems developing through UK firms as customers are tightening their belts as much as possible.

Some of this rise is due to people who are worrying about anticipated job losses, which means their cutting out over spending.

Bars and restaurants were hit the hardest and their financial issues went up 68% compared to the same month last year.

Also hit badly were the professional services with an increase of 61% with companies that are in trouble.

There was also a rise by 60% and 23% for Leisure and Culture, and Sport and recreation.

A formal notice of redundancy was given to a huge number of the public sector staff, which this would have made a massive impact on the discretionary customer spending.

Begbies executive chairman Ric Traynor said “Compared with our figures for food reail, which shows little change, it seems likely that a fall in consumer confidence and spending power, driven by anticipated job losses, lies at the core of the leisure sector’s troubles.”

Also there are signs of huge problems for over 15,000 companies within the professional service sector, partly due to a stale corporate – deals and property market. Also companies that work using a high fixed cost are finding it very difficult with the current market conditions.