Mortgage broker stripped of permissions

A mortgage adviser has been stripped of all his regulated permissions by the FSA.

Christopher Riches, trading as Fairway Mortgages, of Hornchurch, Essex, had continued to advise clients despite not being regulated, and lied about having professional indemnity insurance.

The FSA says that Riches was granted authorisation by the FSA to conduct regulated home finance business in October 2004, and in January 2005 was also permitted to conduct insurance mediation business. However, in January 2010, he was required to cease to conduct regulated business.

Nevertheless, he had completed 69 mortgage transactions since then.

The regulator also found that Riches had submitted false and misleading information to it, including three Regulated Mediation Activities Returns in which he stated he had PI insurance, when in fact he did not.

In a supervisory notice the FSA said: “Mr Riches has conducted regulated activities despite not having the permission to do so over a prolonged period of time, and therefore has failed to conduct his business with honesty and integrity, or in compliance with proper standards, and he therefore no longer satisfies the FSA that he is a fit and proper person to conduct regulated activities.

“He has repeatedly provided false and misleading information to the FSA, and as such Mr Riches presents a significant risk to consumers.”

Riches has the right to refer the matter to the Upper Tribunal.

NEWS source: Introducer Today

Innovation and service is the key, says CML head

It is time for the £1.2 trillion UK mortgage lending industry to pull together, focus on quality, and innovate for the good of customers and the long-term health of the UK housing market, according to Council of Mortgage Lenders chairman Martijn Van der Heijden.

 

Speaking on Friday to an audience of over 600 at the CML annual lunch, he said: “I think we have to get more honest, more transparent, more intelligible, to our customers. We need to be clear about what we provide and how we provide it. 

 

“More importantly, we need to make a true cultural shift from a sales culture to a service culture.

 

“Somehow, after deregulation but before the credit crunch, mortgage lending sleepwalked into becoming a commoditised sales business rather than a true customer relationship business. It took the credit crunch to wake everyone up, and now we need to make sure we stay awake.

 

“However, increasing confidence should not simply mean defaulting to the ultra-conservative.

 

“What we shouldn’t do is build in a safety buffer on capital, a safety buffer on conduct, a safety buffer on market differentiation, and end up with a small market of homogenous offerings. There may be pressure from regulators to do so, but to throw away our diverse market place would be an eternal shame and won’t help society.”

 

However, Van der Heijden suggested that the industry needs to support regulators more actively when scrutiny is legitimate.

 

He said: “We should be braver about standing up for doing the right thing, and doing business in the right way. What we shouldn’t do is turn a blind eye. While we should defend our turf against regulatory excess, we should equally support efforts to identify areas where there are attempts to circumvent rules and allow poor lending to slip through the net.”

New Source: Intorducer Today

 

Emphasising the importance of innovation, he said: “Too often in the past, innovation was a euphemism for higher risk. That kind of innovation is not what I mean at all. What I mean by innovation is making it simpler for the customer, providing solutions where there aren’t any. 

 

“Creativity and innovation can be a challenge for lending businesses operating in a cost-controlled environment.

 

“But necessity is the mother of invention, and we are the people who have to do this. Innovation won’t invent itself.”

UK workers face desperate times as cost of living soars

Rising energy prices are savagely reducing the quality of life for some of the poorest members of our society, the UNISON union has warned.

The situation is so bad for some public services workers that they are only putting the heating on when the temperature drops below freezing, or are going to bed early to keep warm.

As well as forcing workers to make significant reductions to their outgoings, such as selling a family car - as reported by one UNISON member - low-paid workers are having to forego even small luxuries, such as a trip to the cinema, so crippling their energy bills have become.

Another member, applying to the union for a winter fuel grant, said that they could only afford to put the heating on at the weekends, so that the house was warm for when their grandchildren came to visit.

The shocking impact that exorbitant energy costs are having has been highlighted by There for You: supporting UNISON members when life gets tough - the charity arm of UNISON, the UK's largest union.

There for You, which provides grants to UNISON members who are experiencing financial difficulties ranging from struggling with mortgage repayments, to small loans to buy clothing such as school uniforms, paid out more than £750,000 in grants in 2011 - and increase of more than 11% since 2010.

UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: "The pay freeze is really hurting many public service workers and their families. It is a disgrace that working people have to turn to welfare grants just to buy basics like clothing - for which we've seen a more-than-500% increase - and to pay their household bills. The soaring cost of energy is pushing many family budgets over the edge.

"The sun may be shining now, but winter will be here before we know it, and it is a scandal that exorbitant energy prices are having such a massive impact on the quality of life of some of the poorest workers in our society. The fact that they are having to take measures as extreme as only putting the heating on when the temperature hits freezing shows just how bad the situation has become.

"Low-paid public sector workers are the backbone of our society, and the Government should be ashamed that these people are having to make such enormous sacrifices and struggling just to keep warm. UNISON questions what the role of the utilities watchdogs is when the poorest in our society cannot heat their homes, while utilities companies continue to rake in massive profits for their shareholders. Heat is a basic human need, not a luxury to be rationed, and we urge the Government to act now to turn this situation around before it ends in tragedy."


Source  NEWS : Investor Today

Bridging lender sued over mortgage fraud case

Bridging lender West One Loans has declined to comment after being drawn into a legal battle involving a property fraud.

The lender is being sued after one of its investors lost £235,000. Nick Clarke alleges that West One Loans acted in breach of contract over a loan raised on a property in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, London.

West One Loans lent a total of £575,000 to someone claiming to be Massimo Barbini, the registered owner of the property. However, the Land Registry spotted a signature which did not match any in previous records, and uncovered the fraud.

The fraudster has apparently not been traced. Clarke says West One Loans owed him a ‘duty of care' and that it should have obtained valid security for the loan and verified the real identity and address of the borrower.

Clarke has hired top law firm Mishcon de Reya, and is seeking the return of the £235,000 cash plus interest and costs.

The case is due in the High Court on July 6.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) explained it had no remit in this area.

“We license providers of bridging loans and we would be interested in the contractual relationship between the lender and the consumer, but this is a B2B dispute,” it said.

Mark Abrahams, CEO of West One Loans, said: “Sadly, we cannot comment on this investor matter as it’s subject to ongoing legal proceedings. Having said that, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the robust best-practice measures West One Loans has in place to combat fraud.”

Gowan Avenue, Fulham, achieved notoriety when the TV presenter Jill Dando, who had a home there, was killed on the doorstep.

NEWS Source : Letest Property News

FSA's ban on dishonest broker upheld

The FSA has banned self-appointed insurance broking director Derek Wright from performing any FSA-regulated functions.

Wright had previously worked as a director in the regulated insurance market, and in 2001 was disciplined by the Lloyd’s Disciplinary Tribunal. Wright thought he was not being fairly remunerated, and dishonestly diverted premiums and client money from his firm for his own use.

As a result he had been permanently banned from all Lloyd’s premises and was permanently suspended from conducting any insurance business at the firm.

From 1997, Wright ran Moorgate Insurance Agencies, a small insurance broker in Romford, Essex, which was authorised by the FSA from 2004 to 2008.

During this time Wright acted as a director of Moorgate, despite never having been approved by the FSA to fulfil the regulated functions associated with the role.

The only person within Moorgate who was approved to do so was Wright’s wife Mary, but she had little to do with the firm on a day-to-day basis.

Wright was responsible for submitting the firm’s Retail Mediation Activities Returns to the FSA, but these indicated that the firm’s capital resources were consistently below the level required by FSA rules, and also contained inaccuracies.

In February 2007, Wright informed the FSA that the firm’s capital resources deficit would be rectified by a further share issue. But while a copy of a Companies House form was submitted to the FSA purporting to show an allocation of shares to Wright, the annual returns submitted by the firm to Companies House later that year showed no new shareholdings.

The following year, the FSA asked Wright to prove that Moorgate’s creditors had been paid, and that debtors’ money had been collected. His response was that another broking firm had taken over responsibility for collection and payment of premiums, a change which had occurred without the FSA’s knowledge or consent.

Following the FSA’s original Decision Notice in March last year, Wright referred the matter to the Upper Tribunal.

In its response the Tribunal found his actions working at Moorgate suggested he had learned little from his experience at Lloyd’s.

The Tribunal found he had misled the FSA over who was carrying out functions at the firm, and that in addition to dishonesty he had a cavalier attitude to regulatory compliance.

Tom Spender, the FSA’s head of retail enforcement, said: “This case graphically illustrates the dishonesty and lack of integrity that some brokers will exercise if it suits their purposes. Wright dishonestly sought to hide his past and rehabilitate himself by posing as someone authorised to carry out regulated functions for Moorgate, when he was not.

“The FSA will continue to take strong action whenever we see this type of conduct.”

View news source : http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/news_features/fsas-ban-on-dishonest-broker-upheld

Bridging loan industry now worth £1bn

The value of the bridging loan industry has broken the £1bn barrier for the first time, driven by buy-to-let investors unable to get funding elsewhere.

West One’s latest quarterly bridging index found that gross lending in the 12 months from March 2011 to March 2012 rose sharply to reach £1.1bn, 21 % higher than in the 12-month period from January 2011 to January 2012.

West One, itself a bridging lender, says the increase is being driven by residential property investors.

With funding costs soaring on the high street, and banks and building societies scaling back their lending, it says that more investors have turned to bridging loans to fund their projects. Bridging lenders are plugging the funding gap left by high-street lenders.

Gross lending in the first quarter of 2012 was £382m, 95% higher than in the first quarter of 2011, and 30% higher than the previous quarter. If the pace of growth continues on its current trajectory, gross lending in 2012 will hit £1.5bn, an increase of 68% from 2011.

The number of loans advanced in Q1 2012 was 74% higher than during the same period last year.

The average loan size rose sharply from £342,000 in the first quarter of 2011 to £412,000 in Q1 2012, an increase of over 20%. This, says West One,  reflects the bigger projects being tackled by property investors.

Duncan Kreeger, chairman of West One Loans, said: “A big funding gap has been created by the problems high street lenders are having with increasing funding costs, increasing capital requirements and heavy exposure to toxic assets.

“As a result, the high street simply can’t cater for the high demand from property investors for residential loans.

“Thankfully for property investors, bridging lenders are stepping in to fill the funding gap.”

He added: “But it’s not just investors who can’t get finance on the high street that use bridging loans. We’ve seen plenty of evidence of investors using bridging loans even when they can access a buy-to-let mortgage on the high street.

“This may be just the start of a more pronounced shift in the way property investors choose to fund their projects. The figures back up that view: with gross lending set to reach over £1.5bn by the end of this year, the bridging is growing at a rapid pace. Property investors see bridging loans as an increasingly legitimate option.”

View news source : http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/news_features/bridging-loan-industry-now-worth-E2A31bn

FTBs' scramble to save 1% Stamp Duty puts their prices up

First-time buyers paid 2.8% more for their homes in March as they tried to make savings of 1% in Stamp Duty.

The Office for National Statistics said that first-time buyers were unique in paying higher prices this March than March of the previous year.

For owner occupiers moving homes, prices decreased by 1.6% over the same period.

The ONS index, one of the Government’s two official house price indices which sits alongside the very different Land Registry survey, said that overall, UK house prices in March this year were 0.4% lower than a year ago.

It said house prices had barely changed since the beginning of 2011, other than in Northern Ireland where there have been big price falls of 10.7%.

Also noticeable in the index is that the price of new homes has shot up by 6.9% in the 12 months to March, while London house prices have slipped by 0.6%. Although a small fall, it is the first move downwards for London property prices since October 2009.

The ONS puts the average house price in the UK during March at £225,283 – considerably above the Land Registry’s price of £160,372 for the same month.

Meanwhile, the NAEA said there were signs of ‘another slowdown’ in the housing market in April.

It said that listings increased per branch by just one, from an average of 61 in March to 62 in April, with an average of seven sales per branch during the month – the same as in March.

Wendy Evans-Scott, NAEA president, said: “Despite sales figures remaining stable, there is little sign of green shoots of growth in the levels of property supply and demand.

“Growth is being held back by continued restrictive lending policies from the major banks and lack of an adequate mechanism to support the first-time buyer market, a situation which will only get worse if mortgage rates rise as predicted.”

* The number of housing transactions in April was down markedly in April.

A total of 72,000 homes across the UK were sold, according to HMRC – down from 88,000 in April, although up on the 70,000 sold in April last year, when the Royal Wedding proved a distraction.

This April’s figure equates to 2,400 sold a day, compared with the long-term average of 3,383, said housing analyst Henry Pryor.

He said properties on the market have just an 8% chance of being sold in the next month, and a 34% chance of being sold within the next year.

View news source : IntroducerToday News

Complaints to Ombudsman rocket 35%

Complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service about mortgages rocketed by 35% in the last year.

There were 9,537 mortgage-related complaints, compared with 7,067 in the previous year, says the FOS’s annual report covering the 12 months to the end of March.

Of the complaints, 16% were against intermediaries, down from 18% the previous year.

The annual report shows that Payment Protection Insurance is the most complained-about product ever, accounting for 60% of its workload. Altogether, there were 157,716 complaints about PPI.

In total, the FOS had 1,268,798 complaints, with one in five (264,375) escalated to disputes. The number of complaints that turned into disputes was up by 28% over the previous year.

FOS chairman Nicholas Montagu said that media coverage had made large numbers of consumers aware for the first time that they might have been mis-sold PPI policies.

He said: “We received over 150,000 of these cases during the year – the highest number we have ever received in a year about a single financial product. We are still receiving PPI complaints at the rate of over 1,000 new cases every day.”

Sarah Brooks, director of financial services at Consumer Focus, said: “PPI continues to be a thorn in the side of this industry.

“With all that has happened, consumers shouldn’t need to take their PPI claim to the Ombudsman to get their money back. Banks now need to wipe the slate clean by dealing with any claims and compensation payments quickly, efficiently and fairly.”

View news source : http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/news_features/complaints-to-ombudsman-rocket-35http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/news_features/complaints-to-ombudsman-rocket-35

Banking on the move – new app promises change

A new mobile phone app has been developed for banks and building societies which enables customers to use their mobiles to access their accounts and transfer money from one account to another.

The app, from iState Systems, also allows customers to access up-to-date product information and send information and documents.

This means that a client could use the app to complete a mortgage application, for example, answering questions and taking a photo of wage slips or a P60 on their phone to submit it straight away.

It also works for brokers who can submit information on behalf of their clients in the same way.

iState already has its first customer – National Counties Building Society, which is now the first building society in the country to enable their customers to view their accounts and complete transactions using a mobile app.

iState Systems, founded by Barry Yager and Nelson Wootton, has called the product Apprivo, which will be sold to other building societies, banks and financial service companies.

Yager said: “We really believe that Apprivo and mobile phone technology will permanently alter the way that financial institutions do business and the way that they interact with their customers.

“Apprivo enables banks and building societies to provide their customers with new, highly useable, highly competitive services.

“It means customers can now progress a mortgage, loan or savings account at the touch of a button on their mobile phones; intermediaries will have a new instant-access interface; and it reduces the need for documents to be sent in the post, enabling banks and building societies to receive them quicker and more accurately.”

News Source : http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/

Angry advisers hit out at FSA over string of staff departures

An independent wealth management firm has hit out at the FSA, saying that it should be setting a better example.

Addidi Wealth says that high-profile members of the FSA who have left, or are leaving, the regulator should be held to account.

Meanwhile, another leading IFA has separately told the Treasury Select Committee that high-profile members of FSA staff should not simply be allowed to walk away ‘without a care in the world’.

Anna Sofat, managing director of Addidi Wealth, said: “There is a real issue right now around how the FSA calculates the Financial Services Compensation Scheme levies.

“While I agree that those who have received poor advice should be compensated, the way in which the regulator is demanding that IFAs deal with Keydata clients is disproportionate.

“The FSA is insisting that firms which sold Keydata products must go through all their books and compensate individuals, whether the client has complained or not. Keydata products can’t have been bad for everyone or the FSA would never have allowed them to be sold in the first place.

“The FSA is creating the assumption that everyone has been mis-sold and some of these firms which are having to review every single Keydata case could go under, due to the effect that the potential compensation claims will have on their capital adequacy levels.

“As for the interim levy being imposed on IFAs due to the Keydata debacle, Addidi never sold any Keydata products, and yet we have to pay this interim levy at short notice, even though we agreed this year’s budget some time ago.

“We now have to cater for this unexpected extra cost, even though we are not responsible for any of the mis-selling.

“Clearly, the FSA must encourage best practice, but surely a better way to incentivise advisers to be compliant is to make the polluter pay – by charging higher FSCS fees to those firms with a high level of upheld complaints, and lower fees for those with fewer successful complaints.

“Networks have traditionally prevented their members from doing high-risk business in order to keep their compliance costs down, so why can’t the FSA devise a levy system which reflects the practice of individual firms?

“The FSA seems to be living in a bubble, when it should be setting an example to the industry by holding its own personnel to account when things go wrong.

“A large number of high-profile figures have left the regulator recently to take up highly paid jobs elsewhere, thanks to their regulatory experience, but they will never be held to account if things go wrong.

“Fred Goodwin’s pension was cut for poor performance, so why should regulators who are paid by the taxpayer not face similar accountability?”

Separately, PanaceaIFA chief executive Derek Bradley has written to Mark Garnier MP, a member of the Treasury Select Committee, saying that key figures who have left the FSA should be held to account by the committee.

Bradley says: “Given the huge cost involved to the industry and ultimately consumers, the TSC should as a matter of priority call all these key figures before them and get to the truth surrounding the exact reasons behind their departures.

“After all most of them, if not all, have played a very key part in the RDR design and implementation processes. To see them simply walk away without a care in the world before January 1, 2013, is a manifest failure in duty on their part.

“Additionally, it shows a distinct lack of respect for their colleagues, who will be left to carry the can if all goes wrong with the TSC and of course those they regulate.”

Margaret Cole, managing director of the FSA, has already left, while chief executive Hector Sants has announced his departure, as has Peter Smith, former head of investment policy.

Other top-level departures include those of Amanda Bowe, RDR head, managing director of supervision Jon Pain, managing director of risk Sally Dewar, and chief operating officer Mark Norris.

News Source : http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/

First Complete adds serious illness specialist to panel

First Complete, part of the LSL group, has added PruProtect to its protection panel.

This brings the total number of life companies on the panel to six, joining Ageas, Aviva, Bright Grey, Friends Life and Legal & General.

PruProtect has a growing portfolio of protection products including a flagship serious illness plan, which covers 161 conditions compared to the market average of 35 critical illness conditions.

Jon Round, chief executive of First Complete, said: “We look to continually improve our panels and what they offer to our members.

“Protection is at the heart of the proposition provided by First Complete, so adding PruProtect to our protection panel helps us to increase both quality and choice for our members and for their clients.”

Page Source : http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/news_features/first-complete-adds-serious-illness-specialist-to-panel

Yorkshire BS gets set for expansion

A dozen new branches are to be opened by Yorkshire Building Society over the next two years, and will also grow its agency network.

Chris Pilling, chief executive, said: “Our branch and agency network is at the heart of Yorkshire Building Society and I’m delighted that we are able to announce this expansion when other financial institutions have been closing theirs.

“We are committed to retaining a strong presence on our high streets, providing our customers with access to a wide range of good-value financial service products backed up with the exceptional personal service they value.

“Our recent merger activity highlighted the value we place on our branch network, with all the branches we acquired remaining open, even in the small number of locations where there has been an overlap with another Yorkshire branch.

“These mergers have seen the Society grow its branch network by 65% from 135 to 224 in three years.”

News Source: http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/news_features/yorkshire-bs-gets-set-for-expansion

RBS's 'last bank in town' ads banned from TV

Two ‘last bank in town’ TV adverts for NatWest and the Royal Bank of Scotland have been banned by the advertising watchdog.

The ads attracted two complaints which said there was at least one place, Farsley in Yorkshire, where NatWest had closed its branch despite being the last bank in town.

RBS agreed this was so, as usage of the Farsley branch had fallen, but said that the ad stated that their commitment was to continue providing ‘banking services’ wherever they were the last bank in town. The ad showed a mobile service.

The bank did not go as far as to say that they would commit to keeping all branches open. It said Farsley residents had access to another branch in Pudsey just 1.5 miles away.

But the ASA upheld the complaints, saying the ad would be interpreted by viewers to mean that NatWest would not close a branch where it was the last one in town. It felt that the ad implied that a branch was a bricks and mortar building, not a mobile service.

In a busy week for the ASA, it also upheld a complaint from someone who had received a text message from a claims management firm.

The message said: “Records passed to us show you are entitled to circa £3,250 in compensation from the mis-selling of PPI on your credit card & loan. Reply STOP or PPI for info.”

The complainant had never taken out PPI, and challenged as to how the firm, DARH Ltd, could substantiate its claim as to having had records passed to it.

DARH did not respond to the ASA, which upheld the complaint. The ASA also noted that the text message did not contain information about the identity of the marketer and that it was in breach.

News Source: http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/

New powers for Bank of England to set LTVs

Chancellor George Osborne is set to hand new powers to the Bank of England to regulate the mortgage market by allowing it to set loan-to-value ratio limits.

The new powers would be aimed at controlling busts and booms, by banning unsustainable mortgages and preventing another housing bubble, or stimulating more lending.

The Financial Policy Committee (FPC) at the Bank will be able to set LTV limits – for example, setting them at 75% if it feared a credit bubble, or at 95% if it wanted to encourage more lending.

Osborne told MPs in a debate on the Finance Bill that the new committee, which has already been set up but does not come into legal force until next January, is to be led by the Governor of the Bank of England.

He said: “Its job is not just to try to moderate a credit boom but to try to alleviate a credit bust.”

The committee’s job will be to prevent lenders repeating the scenario of the pre-2008 credit crunch. Then it was commonplace to offer mortgages with 125% LTVs in the belief that property prices would continue rising, along with people’s ability to repay their loans.

Osborne said that the previous light-touch regulation had been an ‘unmitigated disaster’ for the economy. He said the FCP would be ‘entrusted with the stability for the whole financial system’.

Osborne said: “In many senses, this is the bread and butter of people’s daily lives, and it is very important that we understand that, as we create these instruments of policy that don’t currently exist.”

He said of the Bank’s new powers that it did not have to use them, adding: “I should say that these are just possibilities – they are potential tools that the committee might want to use.”

News source: http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/

Sesame networks capture more share of intermediary business

Sesame Bankhall Group achieved a 13.8% share of the mortgage market last year with its PMS and Sesame networks.

The combined group delivered over £26.1bn of mortgage applications to lenders, a £1.9bn increase on the previous year (£24.2bn). Its market share crept up from 13.3% in 2010.

John Cupis, managing director of PMS, said: “It was another challenging year, but with the strong support of our adviser and lender partners, PMS and Sesame once again outperformed the market.

“Over the past year we have made significant investments in valuable new services to enable our members to broaden their offering to clients. This includes protection, mortgage valuations and legal services that are helping intermediaries to develop new income streams.

“We have also bolstered our team of business managers to deliver more face to face support.

“In the face of a tough mortgage market, adviser productivity increased by an average of 20% last year, which demonstrates that our members are rising to the challenge and seizing new opportunities.

“As the Mortgage Market Review draws closer, our strong market position and regulatory expertise means we are ideally placed to help give intermediaries the services and expert guidance they will need to trade efficiently and responsibly in the future.”

PMS is the group’s mortgage club for directly regulated intermediaries. Sesame is its network for appointed representative advisers.

visit http://www.introducertoday.co.uk/

One-third more FTBs will have to pay Stamp Duty this year

One-third more first-time buyers will have to pay Stamp Duty this year than last, it has emerged, after the number of first-time buyers fell to its lowest level last year since 1974.

According to the Halifax, around 187,000 people were first-time buyers in 2011, a 7% drop on 2010 and fewer than half of the peak of 402,800 in 2006.

Last year’s figure the lowest the Halifax has recorded since it started tracking the data for the UK.

Despite affordability – measured by average earnings and average house prices in all the different local authority areas – being at its best level since 2003, most of the South of the country is shut to first-time buyers: in 2011, the Halifax says that only 5% of the South was affordable, compared with 75% of the North. London had no affordable areas at all for first-time buyers.

Hefty deposit requirements meant that first-time buyers last year had to find £27,032 on average to put down on a purchase. In 2007, when first-time buyers had to find a 10% deposit as opposed to 20%, the average deposit was £17,482.

Nationally, the average price paid for a first-time buyer property was £135,160, down 3% on 2010.

“Housing affordability for those looking to get on to the property ladder for the first time has improved significantly over recent years, largely as a consequence of the decline in house prices since 2007,” said Martin Ellis, the lender’s housing economist.

“Nevertheless, conditions for potential first-time buyers remain tough. Difficulties raising the necessary deposit and concerns over the economic climate are preventing many from entering the market.”

Significantly, first-time buyers may struggle even more this year than in 2011. The Halifax estimates that 95% of first-time buyers were exempt from paying Stamp Duty in 2011.

Nearly four in ten did not pay any Stamp Duty as a consequence of the temporary increase in the starting threshold for first-time buyers from £125,000 to £250,000.

On this basis, 38% more first-time buyers – and 43% in total – will be required to pay Stamp Duty once this concession ends in March.

News Source: http://www.introducertoday.co.uk