The market is continuing its slowdown but has stayed relatively stable over the last quarter. One of the key indicators we follow is the report about the amount of new mortgages issued by the bank of England, that figure came out at 64,575 for the month of October, below what economists had been expecting and fewer than the 66,362 reported in September.
Every month the bank of England collects figures on mortgage lending, consumer credit and lending to businesses from high street banks, specialist mortgage lenders and other financial institutions. The figures are considered one of the best indicators of how much the economy is performing.
New mortgage approvals have fallen month-on-month for the past three months, but have not yet shown the significant decline that some critics predicted after the vote to leave the European Union in June 2016. Estate agents have also reported a dip in numbers of both new buyer inquiries and agreed sales.
On the other hand, The UK’s property market has taken the expected rise in interest rates in its stride, according to ratings agency Moody’s. The agency, which along with Standard & Poor’s was widely condemned for awarding triple-A ratings to sub-prime mortgage books before the 2008 financial crisis, said the British property market is more resilient than is widely believed.
Moody’s economist Colin Ellis said: “We haven’t seen quite the negative impact from the Brexit referendum that some had forecast, but then we weren’t as bearish as the OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] or the NIESR [National Institute of Economic and Social Research].
The fund had a strong 4th quarter with a return, net of fees, of 2.44%. Raising the annualized return to 10.25%. We continue to see healthy demand for loans both from buy to let investors and people looking for an efficient solution. As the data above shows, banks have been slow to pick up on this activity and it takes an increasing amount of time for bank loans to be approved. At the end most do get financing from the bank but in the meantime they need access to capital, this has allowed the fund to grow its market share in the unregulated UK loan market rapidly.
Examples of some of the deals include a £ 1,300,000 loan in a sought after location in London with an LTV of 55% at 1.25% per month (15% annualized) which also paid us an arrangement fee of 1.5% on top, a £ 1,022,000 loan at 13 % annually.
The Whitehall Capital Team
