How politicians may look to change the mortgage market

June 11, 2009 by Brendan

Mortgage Advisors

If you choose to take CeMAP training and become a mortgage advisor, you are becoming involved in what is one of the key issues in most people’s lives and a very influential area at that.

When it comes to elections, housing and mortgages are often a key issue and no more so than right now. When it comes to the general election that could happen any time from now up until this time next year, it will be interesting to see how the politicians use the current mortgages market in their manifestoes.

We have already seen some efforts from the Labour government, most of which were written off as being too little too late but Gordon Brown has spoken still of simplifying the mortgage market. Rumours have run rife about using the nationalised Northern Rock to offer standardised mortgage deals. There has also been talk with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) about limiting the amount that people can borrow using standardised loan to value or income ratios and banning 100 per cent mortgages completely.

For several years there has been talk of encouraging even longer term fixed rate mortgages to encourage stability and the 10 year fixed rate mortgage is already becoming more common.

Local authorities have started to offer mortgages so we could see further changes in that area to increase competition, much needed following so many mergers and takeovers, and more protection in the event of failure of mortgage lenders.

Some hope stamp duty might be abolished and the home information packs might be revised. Shared ownership schemes could continue to be pushed or landlord regulation might be revised. There has also been talk of changing the role of the Bank of England to provide more support to the FSA in evaluating risk, monitoring irresponsible lending and minimising repossessions.

The credit crunch will certainly not be forgotten for a long time to come and is likely to mean some significant changes in the housing and mortgages market over the next few years.