If you are looking to move home or are just keen to keep your eyes on the ball when it comes to your mortgage options, you will probably be aware of the Halifax House Price Index.

Their most recent quarterly report had a few highlights, many of which will likely have the media speculating as to the future direction of the market and indeed mortgage lending for weeks to come.

To summarise, they saw house prices fall by 0.5% between March and May but also noted that the annual house price growth is still up, standing at 2.6%, even in these challenging times for the economy.

As usual, there are mixed messages, depending on where you look. 

Some reports suggest circa 25% of people who had no plans to move home pre-Covid are now actively searching, with gardens and the opportunity to work from home understandably high on the list of must-haves.

Other outlets report lenders pulling back on 10 percent deposits or seeking a range of other assurances from people looking to arrange a new mortgage or seeking to remortgage.

Let’s be honest, it can all seem a little confusing with so many different messages coming from so many different platforms. The key is to try to take as wide a view as possible of the situation. 

At Mortgage Advice Bureau we have a fantastic team of fully qualified mortgage advisers who can help you find the ideal mortgage for you, in fact, we have what you might call our 3 golden rules if you are looking for a new home or indeed, a new mortgage. 

I will expand on these in the coming weeks but for now, try to remember these tips to help get your mortgage ready:

  • What can you afford? Start the planning before you start hunting for your dream home. 
  • Get your paperwork in order. It’s never a particularly joyful task but now is as good a time as any whilst we’re all stuck inside.
  • Check out your credit score. There’s lots of ways to do this online and it might even throw up some errors you can correct right away.

Stay tuned for more on these 3 key areas, the team and I are all here to help so if you need any extra guidance on these, or indeed anything else that can help you in sorting out your mortgage, just drop me a line.