Me and Miss Ursus have been tending our savings today with the bank.
Although we got a bit of a sales pitch in regards to various higher paying accounts/vehicles for our bear cave fund. We got talking about a possible mortgage. Seems now that FTB's can definitely only have 95% LTV and no more than 2.5x ratio joint or 3/3.5x single. (good news)

Anyway... The conversation led onto to a more bearish outlook on property and the account advisor seemed a little shocked when I replied that the housing market needs fully assessing on the fictional values most bear caves are given on the availability of cheap credit and liar loans (Eric - I spoke like the rainbow) The response was quite bullish but did hint of a nice flavouring of fear.

The Mortgage Advisor will be calling tomorrow so I should be able to get some more info as he was off ill today.



Will update once I have some more info on the mortgages available to a FTB. Although my salary is decent, so it might skew things but should provide a good benchmark for where we are at.


btw: I've no intention of buying yet, but I previously had a quote from Northern Crock 2 years ago with significantly less earning's that was in the region of 180K at 100% I'm expecting(read: HOPE) less this time from a mainstream bank.

keep us posted

Well the MA rang. It seems I'm a valued customer and a 3.5x salary isn't a problem. But it seems the 95 - 90% ltv's are a NO-GO. With 20%+ deposit with upto 4x LTV being my best option.

I was advised that the "credit crunch" wouldn't affect customers as myself. But as I'm probably not your typical FTB this doesn't surprise me.

The going rates were as follows;

5.99% on 85% LTV with a 399 setup fee
6.3% on 85% LTV with 99 setup fee
or
5.1% on 85% LTV with a 2999 setup fee


So it seems unless your now sat on a cash pile with a spotless history with an A1 credit rating your going to struggle to get anything near the interest rate and that's provided you have the equity or cash to provide that all important cushion.

Mortgage Advisor "off sick"eh?? Job interview flipping burgers more like!

Which bank was this Ursus please?

We were offered base + 0.94 variable (6.19%), £995 set up fee no early repayment penalties and no penalties for lump sum repayments.