Latest news with #firstTimeBuyers
Daily Mail
21 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
The French village PAYING families to move in: Quaint hamlet lures couples with £4,000 bonus plus £850 per child in bid to boost dwindling population
Three hundred thousand spectators descend on the French city of Le Mans every year for the opening day of the world-famous endurance race. The region, today, owes much to the noise and fervour of the competition, bringing nearly 100 million euros to the local economy annually. But just 15 miles to the north, the way of life is slower, still cloaked in its Medieval history and visibly untouched by the busy communes on its frontiers. The sparse streets of Marolles-les-Braults are studded occasionally with a house or a heritage site. Churches and castles nearby paint a rich picture of France 's rocky history with England. But the village of 2,000 today is content with quiet inside its tiny borders, surrounded in all directions by sprawling fields of gold and green. Still, an unsettling truth looms over the village. The population is ageing, and the number of empty properties has swollen in recent years. Pressed to respond to this existential challenge, authorities are trialing radical ideas to encourage change. Taking note of similar trials across Europe, a new scheme - introduced only in November - will see first-time buyer couples aged under 40 paid a €5,000 bonus (£4,195) to move to the hamlet, with an extra €1,000 (£839) per child under 15. There is a real sense of pride around the carefully conserved way of life in Marolles-les-Braults. Publicly, the mayor boasts of how 'fortunate' they are 'to have two churches'. Illustrating the rate of change, he says the area has taken on 'a new dimension' since a decision to cultivate more flowers. People are clearly important. A polished website for the commune has been updated to list all of the small businesses offering services to locals, many of them family-owned. There are separate pages dedicated to markets and funfairs taking place throughout the year, and a place to report anything lost and found. Decisions are made on a small scale, and the village rarely makes national headlines. But a page has nonetheless been cultivated to keep a record of the village's history and changes on a local level. The demographic crisis is not immediately apparent. In 1982, the earliest published record, there were 1,840 people living in the village. In 2022, there were 2,135. Change has been steady. But, in keeping with trends across Europe, there is a felt concern that the population cannot continue to age at the current rate without replacement. The response is still very much in its early stages. It has been only six months since the authorities voted on a plan to welcome in younger people with a cash incentive. A welcome page for new residents - a nice thought - so far only reads: 'Welcome to the new residents of Marolles-les-Braults and Dissé-sous-Ballon. We invite you to come and introduce yourself at the Marolles-les-Braults Town Hall.' And an initial annual budget of just €30,000 has been set aside for the scheme. The preconditions for the bonuses makes clear the priorities of the administration. To qualify for the €5,000 grant, couples must be first-time buyers aged under 40 purchasing a home in the area. An extra €1,000 per child under 15 is available for those fitting the criteria. The offer is quite significant in an area where homes usually cost between €130,000 (£108,000) and €170,000 (£142,000), per SeLoger. AirBnb shows rental homes from as little as £51 a night. The Connexion, an English-language outlet in France, says that the scheme aims to 'rejuvenate the village' by 'bringing in a younger population to increase its dynamism and prevent homes from remaining empty for too long and decaying'. So far, they wrote in the middle of May, three young couples have moved to the area. Marolles-les-Braults is not the first to try such a scheme. Italy this year unveiled plans to offer families as much as £23,000 to move to the idyllic regions of Sardinia and Calabria, but there is a catch. Residents considering a move must go to one of nine small villages in the regions with populations of 2,000 or fewer. These are not the more touristic areas but sleepy villages. Italy recognises the wider pattern of an exodus of young natives moving to larger cities or overseas for work, and looks to bring people in before making its smaller population centres more desirable to stay in. France also has a precedent of encouraging residents with cash incentives, though unlike Italy the fees are significantly smaller, organised by the regions rather than the state. In 2019, the 42 municipalities in Aisne, northern France, banded together with a scheme to encourage buyers to relocate with €5,000 grants. It was hoped the scheme would breathe new life into a sparsely populated area and help rejuvenate the region's old buildings, unoccupied and falling into disrepair. 'We have carried out a study that has led us to the conclusion that many of these houses have been empty for a long time,' Pierre-Jean Verzelen, president of the community of communes for Pays de la Serre told Le Parisien at the time. At the time, a 115sqm home in the region could be expected to set buyers back just €35,000 (£29,000). Today, the average price per square metre in the London region is £7,000. It was unclear how well the scheme had worked. MailOnline was unable to reach the local administration for comment. The scheme aims to 'rejuvenate the village' by 'bringing in a younger population to increase its dynamism and prevent homes from remaining empty for too long and decaying' In Brignon, a village in the south of France, authorities experimented with selling off land at just €1 per square metre to young couples in an effort to rebuild its population. The population in 2017 was much smaller than that of Marolles-les-Braults, hovering around 600. But by 2024, Brignon was able to report a net population increase of 30 - a not insignificant rise of around five per cent. The Connexion reported in January that the increase was enough to keep open a local school and justify plans to build a new day nursery. With its bold new policy, Marolles-les-Braults will hope to echo some of that success. The village is only a stone's throw from the city of Le Mans, but carries a much slower pace of life. Recognising this to be an asset as much as a curse the commune will hope its carefully conserved offer is enough to woo new friends and neighbours from afar.
BreakingNews.ie
3 days ago
- Business
- BreakingNews.ie
First-time buyers lead the way for mortgage approvals in April
First-time buyers continue to lead the way for mortgage approvals in April, with the overall value of approvals supported by ongoing increases in the average value of approvals and increases in re-mortgaging levels. The trends in approvals are broadly in line with Q1 and are unlikely to impact our mortgage forecasts, according to Davy. Advertisement The Banking & Payments Federation Ireland's (BPFI) April mortgage approvals of €1.5 billion are ahead by 14 per cent by value and 4 per cent by number versus April 2024, with the timing of Easter (April 2025 versus March 2024) likely having some impact on April 2025 activity levels. First-time buyers (€965 million) again lead growth with a 12 per cent increase in value (3 per cent by number), with a large increase in re-mortgaging (€151 million), albeit off a low base. Second and subsequent buyers remains more muted with a 1 per cent increase in value and 6 per cent decline in numbers of approvals. Average mortgage approvals continue to increase with an 8 per cent increase in first-time buyers to €330,123 and a 7 per cent increase in second and subsequent buyers to €374,823. On a year-to-date basis, the overall value of approvals has increased by 16 per cent, with a 13 per cent increase in first-time buyers and 9 per cent increase in second and subsequent buyers. Advertisement Second and subsequent buyers are more impacted by the health of the existing homes market where supply remains at very low levels. Nonetheless, the trends in April are broadly in line with Q1 and point to increases in activity in the mortgage market. As a result, we maintain our mortgage forecasts with an overall mortgage drawdown of €14 billion (2024: €12.6 billion) and growth of 3 per cent in the stock of mortgage balances.
The Independent
4 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Nationwide calls for looser mortgage lending rules to help 10,000 more buyers
Nationwide is calling for mortgage affordability rules to be relaxed in a bid to help an extra 10,000 hopeful first-time buyers, as the building society revealed its record month of lending. The lender said home buyers had been rushing to complete purchases ahead of tax relief being slashed from April. It reported a pre-tax profit of £2.3 billion for the year to the end of March, 30% higher than the £1.8 billion it made the year before. Mortgage lending returned to growth during the year, with total loan balances rising to £275.9 billion from £204.5 billion in 2023. Nationwide said it had its busiest ever month of mortgage lending in March, and its strongest ever day on the last day of the month. This echoes similar comments made by Lloyds Banking Group, which hailed its record day of lending in March. Stamp duty discounts becoming less generous from April onwards sparked a stampede of home buyers in the run-up to the deadline. Stamp duty – a tax on property – applies in England and Northern Ireland. Muir Mathieson, Nationwide's chief financial officer, said: 'What's been fascinating though is that, in April and May, the strength of the mortgage market has continued. 'We haven't seen the cliff-edge, that drop-off in mortgage activity in April and May that we were expecting quite frankly. 'The mortgage market continues to be really resilient and we're intending to remain competitive within it.' Mr Mathieson said the group has been calling on the Bank of England to review its cap on high loan-to-income lending. Like other lenders, it is limited to offering no more than 15% of new loans to customers borrowing at, or above, 4.5 times their income. Nationwide said it maxes out this cap every year, because of the demand among first-time buyers for bigger loans relative to the amount they earn. Debbie Crosbie, Nationwide's chief executive, said: 'The reality is that if we didn't have the limit as low (as it is), then we could be lending to more first-time buyers. 'For Nationwide alone we think it could be an extra 10,000 (per year), and it could be multiples of that if the market limit was raised.' Mr Mathieson said that due to stricter affordability controls, the level of higher loan-to-value mortgages falling into arrears tends to be half that of its other lending. Furthermore, Ms Crosbie said it is a 'very competitive' mortgage market, adding: 'Our margin that we're earning is definitely lower this year than it has been in previous years.' Nationwide, which bought rival bank Virgin Money last year, will be handing out a record £2.8 billion to its members as part of its 'fairer share' payment. The mutual – which means it is owned by its customers, rather than shareholders – said more than four million of its members will receive it.
The Sun
6 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
Warning for first-time buyers as sub-4% mortgage rates ‘hanging by a thread' after big inflation spike
EXPERTS are warning first-time buyers to act swiftly, as the cheapest mortgage deals could soon be off the table. Those looking to step onto the property ladder should consider locking in these rates now, with predictions suggesting they could be gone by the end of the week. 1 Home buyers have been in an ideal position lately as mortgage lenders have been slashing rates and offering incentives for first-time buyers. Leading lenders have been advertising rates below the golden number of 4%. But the UK's inflation rate soared higher than expected last week, hitting 3.5% - and that's expected to have a knock-on effect on mortgage rates. According to mortgage brokers, rates have already begun climbing once again, with warnings that more deals could vanish in the near future. Elliott Culley, director at Switch Mortgage Finance, told The Sun: "There only a few products remaining below 4%, and it looks like the majority of these will be gone by the end of the week." Meanwhile Justin Moy, managing director at EHF Mortgages, said that "we will likely see mortgage rates creep back over that 4% line in the coming days". Another broker, HTG Mortgages director Harry Goodliffe, said sub-4% rates are "hanging by a thread". Why are rates rising again? It's largely due to the higher-than-expected inflation figures last week. Inflation rose to its highest level since January 2024, driven by increased energy costs, road taxes and air fares. The figures have prompted markets to reassess how quickly and aggressively the Bank of England will cut its base rate over the next year. Mortgage Rates Evergreen That's because the Bank uses interest rates to control inflation. Markets had previously been pricing in four base rate cuts over the course of the year, taking the base rate to 3.5% by the end of 2025. Now the expectation is there could be three or fewer cuts. The base rate is currently set at 4.25%, and the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee will next review its level on June 19. But the inflation figures may mean the Bank of England is less likely to cut rates again. This in turn means that swap rates are higher. Swap rates reflect what markets expect will happen to interest rates in the near future. They're determined by factors including weather events, inflation, wars, tariffs and supply chain issues. Mortgage rates are heavily influenced by what is going on in the swap markets, and swap rates have been creeping up again over the past two weeks. As a result, several major lenders including HSBC, NatWest, Nationwide, Santander and Skipton Building Society have raised rates on some of their products. What's happening to the cheapest rates? The majority of mortgage lenders have increased their rates following last week's inflation data. Brokers say that if there continues to be less confidence in the market then rates could keep increasing. Rob Peters, principal at Simple Fast Mortgage, said the spike in inflation has "rattled the markets" and has put "real pressure on the sub-4% mortgage deals". "If this inflation trend continues, we will absolutely see some of those rates disappear, at least in the short-term," he said. However, he said they "won't vanish overnight" as there's still some room for lenders to compete with each other. Joseph Lane, founder of Mortgage Lane, agreed the sub-4% rates aren't gone entirely, but they're "becoming increasingly rare". "The recent rise in inflation has shifted expectations, and while some high street lenders may hold onto sub-4% deals for low-risk residential borrowers, these offers will likely be limited and short-term," he said. Meanwhile Nick Mendes, mortgage technical manager at John Charcol, said the recent trend of falling mortgage rates seems to be "pausing or even reversing". He said mortgage rates aren't expected to spike dramatically but the ultra-low deals we've seen recently are "looking increasingly precarious". What should you do if you're a first-time buyer? Mendes says that if you're looking to buy then you should explore your options "sooner rather than later". HTG Mortgages' Harry Goodliffe agrees that buyers should act quickly if they're looking to get on the ladder. "We've seen some of the best deals quietly vanish overnight, and more could follow," he said. "If you're sitting on the fence, now might be the time to jump. "The window for locking in a 3-point-something deal could be closing fast." It's worth noting that mortgage lenders still have plenty of incentives to help first-time buyers even if you're unable to lock in a rate soon. For example, April Mortgages and Gable mortgages recently launched a new 100% mortgage that requires zero deposit. Meanwhile other lenders such as HSBC and Halifax have been slashing their affordability rules to allow people to borrow more. Craig Calder, secured lending director at TSB, said: "If you are looking to get on the property ladder or purchase your next home, make sure you keep an eye on rates and talk to your bank or mortgage broker to get the best deal for your individual circumstances. "Remember, some lenders will let you secure a mortgage rate three to six months in advance with no obligation to take it if lower rates are available when you are ready to purchase." How to get the best deal on your mortgage IF you're looking for a traditional type of mortgage, getting the best rates depends entirely on what's available at any given time. There are several ways to land the best deal. Usually the larger the deposit you have the lower the rate you can get. If you're remortgaging and your loan-to-value ratio (LTV) has changed, you'll get access to better rates than before. Your LTV will go down if your outstanding mortgage is lower and/or your home's value is higher. A change to your credit score or a better salary could also help you access better rates. And if you're nearing the end of a fixed deal soon it's worth looking for new deals now. You can lock in current deals sometimes up to six months before your current deal ends. Leaving a fixed deal early will usually come with an early exit fee, so you want to avoid this extra cost. But depending on the cost and how much you could save by switching versus sticking, it could be worth paying to leave the deal - but compare the costs first. To find the best deal use a mortgage comparison tool to see what's available. You can also go to a mortgage broker who can compare a much larger range of deals for you. Some will charge an extra fee but there are plenty who give advice for free and get paid only on commission from the lender. You'll also need to factor in fees for the mortgage, though some have no fees at all. You can add the fee - sometimes more than £1,000 - to the cost of the mortgage, but be aware that means you'll pay interest on it and so will cost more in the long term. You can use a mortgage calculator to see how much you could borrow. Remember you'll have to pass the lender's strict eligibility criteria too, which will include affordability checks and looking at your credit file. You may also need to provide documents such as utility bills, proof of benefits, your last three month's payslips, passports and bank statements.
Daily Mail
22-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Could first-time buyers turn to tech to help save for a home?
When you combine rising living costs with high house prices and mortgage rates, things aren't exactly looking up for first-time buyers. Given this outlook, it would be easy to despair. But instead, many are turning to tech-savvy savings tools to help them achieve that seemingly impossible feat: getting on the housing ladder. One common approach is to use smart apps to help save money for a deposit and track spending to identify any outgoings that can be trimmed back. First-time buyers are also using these apps to access higher interest rates than those offered by some high street banks*, helping them reach their target faster and more efficiently. One of the most popular is Plum, which is available to download for free via the App Store or Google Play. Here's how it could help you buy your dream home... First-time buyers are using smart savings apps to put money aside for a deposit Savings apps: The modern-day piggy bank More and more people are making the most of the powerful tech offered by smart apps. In Plum's case, it connects to your bank account and uses clever algorithms to figure out what you can afford to save before setting it aside on your behalf every so often. This might only be a few pounds at a time, but done regularly, even small amounts mount up. And because the app doesn't take too much and leave you short, you shouldn't need to raid your house fund to pay a bill that drops a week before payday. Plum helps you maximise your savings with a series of 'Auto Saver' features, some of which are free and others available on a paid subscription. These include Pay Days, which save a predetermined amount each time you receive your salary. Automating your saving with Plum helps you save little and often in the background, so you're constantly progressing towards your goal even when you're not thinking about it While many of us will still want a payday treat, sending a chunk of cash straight to your savings reduces the chance of any regrets. And if there's a particular retailer that you often turn to at these times of temptation, why not enable the Naughty Rule? This lets you automatically save a sum of money when you buy from somewhere you deem a guilty pleasure, adding a silver lining to any impulse purchases. Whatever Auto Savers you choose, you're always in control – with the option to increase or decrease the size of your deposits at any time. Turning micro-savings into a mortgage The ability to automate saving has proved attractive to people working towards big money goals, like getting on the housing ladder. And as they've grown, apps like Plum have now become even more useful to first-time buyers by offering popular tax-free savings products at highly competitive rates of interest. Tax treatment depends on your individual circumstances and may be subject to change in the future. Tax-free savings… and then some! One product many use to get on the housing ladder is the Lifetime ISA, which allows you to save £4,000 towards a first home (worth up to £450,000) or retirement. How Plum keeps your money safe You work hard for your money, so you'll want to ensure every penny you put away is protected. Money held in a Plum Easy Access Interest Pocket, Lifetime ISA or Cash ISA is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) up to a total of £85,000 per customer. There are also protections for a non-interest earning pocket, like a Primary Pocket, which is covered by the E-Money Safeguarding Rules. The Plum app also supports encryption and face and fingerprint ID for added security. And if you ever need help, their friendly customer support teams are available 7 days a week. Click here for more information on how your money is protected with Plum. The government then adds a 25 per cent bonus to whatever you save, up to £1,000. So, if you put away £4,000 – which counts towards your annual £20,000 ISA allowance - you end up with £5,000! This money grows further thanks to a great 4.75% AER (variable) interest rate for the first 12 months, including a 1.14% AER (variable) bonus, with any interest payments free from tax. If you're buying your first home, you can access any money in your Lifetime ISA once it has been open for at least 12 months. Accessing your savings for other reasons before the age of 60 could incur a 25 per cent penalty, so take a moment to make sure you won't have to. But if you do decide to opt for one, opening a Plum Lifetime ISA couldn't be easier. Simply head to the app and answer a few quick questions (including one checking that you're aged between 18 and 39). Note that you may not be a good fit for LISA. With the exception of eligible withdrawals, a 25% withdrawal fee applies and by this you could receive a lower return than what you initially paid for. LISA rules may change. Tax treatment is subject to your personal situation. And now protect the rest UK taxpayers can save a total of £20,000 in ISAs every year, so if you've used up £4,000 on a Lifetime ISA, you'll still have £16,000 of your allowance left. Cash ISAs let you set aside this money without paying tax on your interest. The personal allowance is £1,000 for basic rate taxpayers and £500 for those on the higher 40 per cent rate, so if you're acing the savings game, you might already be liable. A major bonus of the Plum Cash ISA is its competitive rate of up to 4.95% AER (variable), which includes a bonus rate of 1.66% AER (variable) for the first 12 months. The interest rate for ISA transfers is 3.29 per cent AER (variable). You can open a Cash ISA with Plum without paying a subscription fee. And you can withdraw in one business day, with no additional charges. Nice! Plum Cash ISAs offer a competitive rate of up to 4.95% AER (variable) Support on your home-buying journey Let's be honest: technology is never going to be a silver bullet that makes it easier to save towards a home. But by combining automatic saving with competitive rates on ISA products, apps like Plum could help a priced-out generation finally make their first step on the housing ladder. So go on - see what you could achieve when you start small... Try Plum TODAY by downloading it for free from App Store or Google Play. Plum is the trading name of Plum Fintech Limited and Saveable Limited. Plum Fintech Limited is registered and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 836158). Saveable Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA (FRN: 739214)
