UK fast purchase property firm National Homebuyers says it welcomes plans from HSBC to review its lending criteria. The trend in recent years has been for banks and building societies to relax spending conditions, yet HSBC has announced it is to increase the minimum proportion of the value of a home required to be paid as a deposit in order for a mortgage to be approved.
National Homebuyers' director, Julian King, says: "We understand that existing homeowners will now be required to find a ten per cent deposit in order to purchase a home - up from five per cent."
National Homebuyers is the UK's leading provider of fast house sale solutions. The company has been receiving increasing volumes of enquiries from homeowners worried about the effect of being able to borrow more than is practical.
Meanwhile, first time buyers - who had previously been able to take out a 100 per cent home loan - will now have to pay a deposit of five per cent.
"This is a significant move," Simon Tyler, of brokers Chase de Vere Mortgage Management, told the Times.
"All we have seen recently is lenders relaxing their criteria, but HSBC is obviously worried that the recent interest-rate rises will have an impact on the housing market.
"It is trying to protect itself in case an increasing number of borrowers struggle to meet their mortgage payments and prices do fall in some areas."
For further information on a quick house sale or to release equity in your home, please contact National Homebuyers on 0870 979 8118 or visit www.nationalhomebuyers.co.uk.
