Ray Boulger's Blog
Ray Boulger is widely renowned as the guru of the mortgage industry and expert on the housing market. Ray is constantly called upon by the media to provide informed comment on all areas of the market, and is a regular on the BBC, Sky and ITV.
Last year, Ray was voted guru of the year at the Headlinemoney awards by all of the nation’s money and property journalists. As such, we thought it was high time that you had direct access to him. Ray’s blog will be updated most days so the knowledge just keeps on coming.
11/08/2010 by
Gilt yields have fallen sharply today, with the yield on 4 - 10 year gilts lower by around 11 basis points (0.11%). This follows yesterday evening's statement by the Fed and today's Quarterly Inflation Report from the Bank of...
Categories: Mortgages, Property market, Bank of England, Regulation, Interest rates
13/07/2010 by
Below is today’s press release from the FSA on its proposed changes to the mortgage market, followed by an amended version of what I think it meant to say but was too shy to do so: ...
Categories: Property market, Buy to let, Mortgages, Regulation
15/04/2010 by
On its mainstream introducer range last weekend Halifax extended to fixed rates the policy it introduced a month ago on trackers of charging borrowers an extra 0.2% if they choose an interest only mortgage rather than repayment....
Categories: Property market, Mortgages, Personal finance, Regulation
16/02/2010 by
It was clear from the Mortgage Market Review that the FSA had a very limited understanding of the value of a self cert mortgage for many, primarily self employed, people. Before finalising any new policy, even though the actual...
Categories: Regulation, Miscellaneous
25/01/2010 by
Bank of China (UK) has an advert on p.9 of Metro today promoting its Bank Rate + 2.3% lifetime tracker, available up to 75% LTV. If one assesses competitiveness purely on rate and ignores the criteria this rate is market leading...
Categories: Bank of England, Mortgages, Regulation, Interest rates
10/12/2009 by
The main impact of the Pre Budget Report on the housing market will be at the top end, primarily in London & the South East. The 50% bank payroll tax on discretionary bonuses over £25,000 will surely have some impact either on...
Categories: Property market, Personal finance, Regulation, House and home
01/12/2009 by
Yorkshire Building Society has announced it is in “advanced talks” to takeover, sorry, merge with, Chelsea Building Society. This is not yet a done deal and the statement was no doubt rushed out as a result of a leak reported by...
Categories: Buy to let, Mortgages, Regulation, Miscellaneous
09/11/2009 by
Below is my November column for Money Marketing, published last week: ...
Categories: Mortgages, Regulation
21/10/2009 by
Following on from my blog post on Monday on the MMR I note that less than 24 hours after post the FSA have amended the figure I queried for the increase in property prices over the 10 years to the onset of the credit crunch from...
Categories: Buy to let, Mortgages, Personal finance, Regulation, Interest rates, HIPs
20/10/2009 by
Mortgage Strategy is reporting a call from Vince Cable for ‘stakeholder’ style mortgages to be introduced. He starts off well by saying: “With such a complex mortgage market already in existence highly prescriptive rules for...
Categories: Mortgages, Regulation
The blog postings on this site solely reflect the personal views of the authors and do not neccessarily represent the views, positions, strategies or opinions of Charcol Limited. All comments are made in good faith, and neither Charcol Limited nor Ray Boulger will accept liability for them.