Property investor buys luxury flats in Chelsea, shops in Enfield and a Hilton in Queensway

It was once a cliché but now it is a truism – it has never been more difficult for first-time buyers to get on to the housing ladder. There were 94,600 first-time buyers (FTBs) in the first six months of 2010, half the level for the same period for 2007, just before the credit crunch. This is despite record low interest rates and, in recent months, a growth in the number of mortgage products available for first-timers.

Walking through the homeware area of some of our smarter department stores, you might sometimes think you've taken a wrong turning, judging by all the fashion names you see. Missoni, Ralph Lauren, even Jigsaw, have been crossing over into furniture and homewares for a decade or two and, even in these downturned times, there's no sign that they're going to stop. In the 1990s, Versace's plates, towels and throne-like chairs seemed to be everywhere; the label's signature Greek-key pattern, which decorated everything from sunglasses to bags to the bottom of Gianni's Miami pool, being seen as quite a status symbol in some quarters (and the height of vulgarity in others). Then Mr Armani decided it was time to play house, too. Armani/Casa entered the market in 2000 with the sort of square-edged but luxurious sofas which mirrored the smart and not so casual feel of Armani's perfect greige suits.

Question: With the Bank of England base rate at 0.5 per cent for a year and a half, should we pick a tracker loan for our remortgage? I know rates could rise, but it doesn't look like they will for a while, and we've seen some deals as cheap as 3.75 per cent. Are we "too late to the party" or could the base rate stay low for another year? We're aiming to borrow £144,000 with enough equity (about £36,000) for an 80 per cent loan-to-value mortgage.

 

Never knowingly beaten to a gloomy headline, Capital Economics chose Nationwide Index day to hammer home a bearish house price forecast with the assertion that we're to lose the equivalent of an average salary off the value of our homes...

Student homes specialists Urbanest UK are behind the plans, backed by Kings Cross Central, and if the building goes ahead it will top out at 100m, making it the tallest in the Kings Cross area. Students from Central Saint Martins...

Mortgage Solutions

Nationwide's chief economist, Martin Gahbauer, has called the house price falls of the last two months "not an unhealthy development". Do you think further declines in property prices will boost mortgage activity?

Mortgage Solutions

RBS has announced a further 3,500 job cuts across England and Scotland in the firm’s technical and back office divisions.

Ealing Council yesterday granted planning permission for the £136m regeneration of the run-down Green Man Lane estate.

Economists were today divided over the future direction of the housing market as Nationwide said prices fell for the second consecutive month during August.

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A survey suggests a third of social tenants could be made homeless and 90% of landlords in London and the South East will be affected by the upcoming changes in housing benefit legislation.

Mortgage Solutions

Rising interest rates could lead to a surge of repossessions, with many people simply walking away from their homes rather than pay mortgages, Peter Hargreaves has claimed.

House prices fell for the second consecutive month in August, the Nationwide House Price Index said today, but falls are likely to remain “relatively modest.”

Mortgage Solutions

Abbey for Intermediaries (AFI) is set to launch an exclusive two-year fix at 3.09% available up to 60% LTV.

August showed a 0.9% fall in house prices, according to the Nationwide index, the second monthly fall in a row (and the only time there've been consecutive falls since February 2009). This leaves annual house price inflation down at 3.9%,...

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House prices fell for the second consecutive month in August, figures from Nationwide suggest, but the building society says the correction is "not unhealthy".

Mortgage Solutions

Coventry Building Society has completed its merger with Stroud & Swindon Building Society, in a deal that will migrate 200,000 customers and cut their mortgage interest rates.

A new method of predicting solar storms that could help to avoid widespread power and communications blackouts costing billions of pounds has been launched by researchers in the UK.

Bungalow and detached homeowners are the biggest property winners over the past year in Scotland with the average price of a bungalow has risen by more than any other property type, research shows.