FCA looks to widen mortgage access with proposed lending reforms

First-time buyers, older borrowers and the self-employed could benefit from a more flexible approach to mortgage lending under proposals unveiled by the Financial Conduct Authority. The regulator has launched a consultation on a package of mortgage rule changes designed...

Latest news

Aria Finance joins Mortgage Brain sourcing panel

Aria Finance has joined Mortgage Brain’s Sourcing Brain module as a packager. The move gives Aria Finance access to Sourcing Brain’s network of more than...

Pivotal appoints group COO and CTO

Pivotal has appointed Nneka Orji as group chief operating officer and Charlie Crossfield as group chief technology officer. The mortgage and protection advice platform said...

Fintel to roll out AI file checks across Simplybiz and threesixty customers

Fintel is to give all Simplybiz and threesixty advice firm customers access to AI-powered file checks across every advice case from August. The group, which...

The money sitting in your back pocket that you keep forgetting to pick up

Let me give you a number. Almost half of UK mortgage holders would struggle to meet their payments within six months of losing their...

LiveMore broadens lending criteria to support more complex borrowers

Specialist lender LiveMore has expanded its lending criteria, reducing the time it looks back at historic credit issues as it seeks to improve access to mortgages for borrowers with more complex financial backgrounds. The changes mean borrowers with historic...

Legal Services Board joins government AI growth initiative

The Legal Services Board is joining the government’s new AI Growth Lab, a scheme designed to help legal services providers and technology firms test artificial intelligence products under regulatory supervision before they are launched. The initiative, which is being...

Cleerly adopts Acre CRM as conversion rates climb

Specialist mortgage broker Cleerly Mortgages has implemented Acre’s CRM platform after a review of the market, with the firm reporting higher client conversion rates and improved broker productivity following the move. The advice firm said the decision forms part...

First-time buyers face rising stamp duty costs as more homes breach £300k

First-time buyers are increasingly being drawn into paying stamp duty as rising purchase prices push more transactions above the £300,000 threshold, Connells Group has found. Research from the group shows 30% of first-time buyers in England are now purchasing...

PROFILE

Steve Caruthers on understanding how lenders operate

Last year mortgage technology specialist Fignum appointed Steve Carruthers as growth director, signalling its intent to scale its operations and deepen its role as...

INDUSTRY COMMENT

The 1.8 million problem nobody’s talking about

There's a number that should be keeping every mortgage firm owner awake right now. 1.8 million. That's how many fixed rate mortgages are expiring...

Lenders urged to do more as purchase market slows

High street lenders - including TSB, Lloyds, Santander, and NatWest - have all been reducing rates and making changes to their product ranges over...

The cost of knowing less

There is a particular kind of risk in financial services that rarely announces itself with drama. It does not arrive as a crisis event,...

How advisers can win the 2026 remortgage wave

The surge in property transactions during the 2021 ‘race for space’, when completions peaked at more than 200,000 in June of that year, is...

Accidental landlords – do they need different support?

It is unfair to view buy-to-let investors as one homogenous group. There are so many different profile of landlords – and that of the...

Why mortgage marketing is finally starting to look human

Mortgage advertising used to operate in two settings only: either aggressively corporate or suspiciously aspirational. You were either looking at a couple laughing at salad...

Q&As

BUY-TO-LET

The Mortgage Works signals buy-to-let rate reductions

The Mortgage Works is cutting rates by up to 0.22 percentage points across selected...

Accord reduces residential and buy-to-let rates

Accord Mortgages is cutting rates across its residential and buy-to-let ranges. The intermediary-only lender said...

Leek BS launches five-year buy-to-let fixed rate

Leek Building Society has added a five-year fixed rate buy-to-let mortgage to its intermediary...

LendInvest unveils 10bps buy-to-let rate cuts

LendInvest Mortgages has reduced rates across its two-year and five-year fixed-rate buy-to-let products by...

Quantum Mortgages cuts rates and launches remortgage cashback

Quantum Mortgages has launched a cashback product for remortgages and reduced rates across its...

Paragon cuts buy-to-let rates by 20bps

Paragon Bank has reduced rates by 20 basis points (bps) across its buy-to-let mortgage...

Landbay cuts rates across Premier buy-to-let range

Landbay has cut rates across more than 50 products in its Premier buy-to-let range,...

Fleet brings back green buy-to-let fixes and cuts rates

Fleet Mortgages has reintroduced two- and five-year fixed-rate EPC A-C products and reduced rates...

NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

FIRST-TIME BUYERS

First-time buyers delaying major life decisions to save for a home

Many aspiring homeowners are postponing key life milestones and enduring workplace and relationship pressures in an effort to secure a place on the property ladder, according to new research from Mojo Mortgages. The online mortgage broker's First-Time Buyer Sentiment Survey 2026, based on responses from...

First-time buyers wait six years to buy as lifestyle priorities reshape purchasing decisions

First-time buyers are spending an average of six years saving for a deposit as...

Leeds BS cuts residential mortgage rates by up to 0.32%

Leeds Building Society has reduced rates across its mainstream residential mortgage range by up...

HSBC cuts rates across residential and buy-to-let mortgage ranges

HSBC UK is reducing rates across a broad selection of residential and buy-to-let mortgage...

NHS workers priced out as affordability gap widens

Many NHS workers are being priced out of homeownership with average first-time buyer properties...

OPINION

Building societies need to start putting intelligence into motion

If you were at the Building Societies Association Annual Conference in Edinburgh last month , you could not have missed the optimism: the sector...

Beyond the walk: Mortgage leaders talk mental health – part 21

The Mortgage Industry Mental Health Charter's (MIMHC) third annual 144-mile Walk & Talk challenge...

Beyond the walk: Mortgage leaders talk mental health – part 20

The Mortgage Industry Mental Health Charter's (MIMHC) third annual 144-mile Walk & Talk challenge...

Remortgaging BTL in 2026: acting early on landlord refinancing

The buy-to-let market has rarely stood still in recent years, but 2026 has already delivered more twists and turns than any of us could have anticipated when the year kicked off. Product withdrawals, swap rate volatility, changing expectations around Bank Base Rate and wider economic...

Beyond the walk: Mortgage leaders talk mental health – part 19

The Mortgage Industry Mental Health Charter's (MIMHC) third annual 144-mile Walk & Talk challenge finally came to an end on Friday last week as...

DISTRIBUTION

OneDome named among Europe’s fastest-growing fintech firms

OneDome has been named one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in Europe, the Middle...

The Right Mortgage sets out June roadshow programme

The Right Mortgage has announced details of a series of member roadshows taking place...

Omni Protect appoints Caspian as referral partner

Omni Protect has appointed Caspian Insurance as its endorsed protection referral partner for firms...

Shepherds Friendly inks Primis distribution deal

Shepherds Friendly has agreed a distribution partnership with Primis Mortgage Network for its income...

Equity Release Group launches adviser network

Equity Release Group has launched a specialist adviser network aimed at helping firms expand their later life lending propositions as regulatory pressures and market complexity continue to increase. TERN – The Equity Release Network – has been developed over the past three years and is...