Coronavirus & the Mortgage Market | Mortgage Advice in Coventry

Coronavirus impact on the mortgage market

As you probably guessed, the coronavirus has hit the mortgage market hard. Everything is changing so quickly and sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s actually going on. That’s why we thought that it would be best to calm things down and catch you up with the latest news on the coronavirus and its impact on the mortgage market. Here is a short video from Malcolm, the moneyman himself:

Mortgage Surveyors

Before a lender accepts a mortgage application, the property that their borrower is looking to buy will need a valuation. However, since surveyors and mortgage valuers can’t go and visit the property, lenders have put a pause on processing applications.

Some lenders rely on AVM’s (Automated Valuation Model) for valuations on properties. This means that lenders don’t have to rely on a surveyor or a mortgage valuer to physically go out and do everything in person. The problem with AVM’s is that they can only be used on restricted mortgages and on lower loan-to-values.

Recently, we have seen that lenders have decided to restrict their maximum loan-to-value down to 60%. This means that they are continuing to process these applications but not necessarily ones at higher loan-to-values.

A lender’s view

We have seen that every lender is taking a different viewpoint. All that matters is that we haven’t seen any lenders withdraw a single mortgage offer yet. We estimate that they are just waiting it out and seeing what happens. A change could happen in the coming days, weeks or even months, it’s really hard to say at this point in time.

Furthermore, lenders have decided to extend the periods of their initial mortgage offers from six months up to nine. They are giving the economy and the mortgage market the opportunity to get back on track.

Mortgage payment holidays

We talked about mortgage payment holidays last week in a recent article but we feel like we need to clarify a few things. Firstly, they are not free money, you should only take a payment holiday if you absolutely need to. You should get in touch with your Mortgage Advisor in Coventry who will go through all of your options and check whether you actually need to take one out before you go to your lender.

Lenders are more than likely to just extend the term of your mortgage anyway so it may be best to just hold off for a bit. If you are certain that you will not meet your monthly payments and you want to take a mortgage holiday, then you should get in touch with your lender as soon as possible. Lenders are asking for their borrowers to get in touch through their website rather than them phone up and this is due to the thousands of calls they are receiving every day. You are more likely to get through online too.

Make sure that you check with your lender that taking out a mortgage payment holiday will not damage your credit score or mark any arrears against your account. You must remember to not cancel your direct debit and that you will need to get permission from your lender to take out a mortgage payment holiday.

Speak to a Mortgage Advisor in Coventry

We know that everything is getting a little too much and becoming very stressful. That’s why your Mortgage Broker in Coventry, Coventrymoneyman is here to help. We want this to all blow over and for the mortgage market to resume as much as you do.

We can’t change anything though, so we got to get through this together. Your Specialist Mortgage Advisor in Coventry is available to answer all of your mortgage questions 7 days a week. We can check whether you need to take out a mortgage payment holiday or give you advice on anything mortgage that you are concerned about. We hope that we hear from you soon!

This article was originally published on 30/03/2020 and as of the 20/05/2020 the property market has now resumed and this information has become outdated. Everything was 100% accurate at the date that this article was published.

Mortgage Broker in Coventry