By ROSEMARY GALLAGHER
1. WHAT IS A MORTGAGE?
A mortgage is a loan, usually from a bank, building society or finance company, to help you buy your home. You have to pay back everything you borrow from your lender within an agreed time – the mortgage term. You also have to pay interest on what you have borrowed. It is "secured" against the property, which means the lender could repossess your home if you fall behind on payments.
2. FIXED-RATE MORTGAGES
The main benefit of a fixed-rate mortgage is payment security. You know exactly what you will be repaying each month for the agreed term – usually two, three or five years, but some lenders offer 25-year fixes. Whatever happens to interest rates ...
Tags: Home Loan Advice
A guide to affordable housing schemes - Times Online
Tell me more about schemes that help people who can't afford to buy. Do I need to be a key worker, for example?
Tens of thousands of first-time buyers from all sorts of backgrounds are taking advantage of affordable housing schemes. Although most schemes are aimed at key workers - nurses, teachers, firefighters and police officers - some are open to anyone with a steady job.
How do affordable housing schemes work?
The most widespread is the New Build HomeBuy scheme (also known as shared ownership). It is government-funded, and allows buyers to buy part of a newly built property, normally a share of between 25 and 75 per cent, by taking out a fixed-rate mortgage with an ordinary lender and paying a subsidised rent on the rest. The rent is pegged to inflation and is reviewed (and usually increased) annually. Most schemes will cap the rent at some point.
Can I buy a smaller chunk of the home?
With some providers and developments. Under its Your Place scheme, Genesis Housing Group offers a 3 per cent stake to renters at the Factory Quarter in East Acton, West London, after a three-year occupancy. Tenants can then buy stakes of up to 9 per cent of the value of their home.
Can I buy any property through a New Build HomeBuy scheme?
No. The programme applies only to newly built homes on certain developments. Planning laws require developers to devote a percentage of larger new schemes to affordable housing. This tranche, up to 50 per cent of a development in London, is owned and managed by a housing association that sells some of the homes to first-time buyers and may keep others for council tenants.
Tags: Home Loan Advice
For those planning to set up a new business venture or giving a new look to the running concern on a low budget, the best outside help will come from small business finance. The loan plan has been launched after much thinking keeping in view all the problems that may arise when one decides to bring about changes on an existing venture or set up a new business on a modest scale. Small business finance regulations are simple and the format has been drawn up to facilitate the applicant.
There are two types of loans for small business finance – secured and unsecured. For the secured type a collateral will have to be pledged. For the ...
Tags: Business Loans
