Ray Boulger's Blog

Ray Boulger

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.


15/04/2013 by Ray Boulger

In today’s Metro the Post Office, which is an Appointed Representative of Bank of Ireland (UK) Ltd, has a front and back page 4 page wrap around with a non compliant mortgage advert, which suggests a pretty slap dash approach to...

Categories: Bank of England, Mortgages, Regulation, Interest rates

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15/02/2013 by Ray Boulger

This week’s Quarterly Inflation Report from the Bank of England added little in terms of inflation expectations to the statement issued by The Bank on Thursday last week. However, it did provide considerable meat on the bone and...

Categories: Property market, Bank of England, Mortgages, Personal finance, House and home, Interest rates, Commercial, Buy to let

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07/02/2013 by Ray Boulger

Tomorrow Chelsea B S is cutting its 1.99% 2 year fixed rate (end date 30/4/15) to 1.89%, but at the same time increasing the fee from £995 to £1,695; there will still be no freebies. This new, lower, rate will only be better value...

Categories: Mortgages, Interest rates

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11/12/2012 by Ray Boulger

The FSA has today published its latest mortgage lending quarterly lending figures, for the third quarter of this year. ...

Categories: Mortgages, Regulation, Interest rates, Remortgaging

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30/09/2012 by Ray Boulger

Net mortgage lending has collapsed by over 90% since 2007, down from £109bn to less than £10bn in each of the last two years. One of the casualties has been innovation, unless one classes criteria tightening as innovation. ...

Categories: Property market, Mortgages, Interest rates

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16/07/2012 by Ray Boulger

I watched last week’s Treasury Select Committee interviews of Paul Tucker and Marcus Agius at the weekend. The difference between Bob Diamond’s prevarication and Marcus Agius’ openness was enlightening. ...

Categories: Bank of England, Mortgages, Regulation, Interest rates

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13/07/2012 by Ray Boulger

With today’s announcement from The Bank of England giving further details of the Funding for Lending scheme, which was originally outlined by The Governor and The Chancellor at The Mansion House on 14 June, it is now possible to...

Categories: Bank of England, Mortgages, House and home, Interest rates, Remortgaging

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05/07/2012 by Ray Boulger

Today’s MPC decision to leave Bank Rate unchanged was a foregone conclusion, following Mervyn King’s speech at The Mansion House Banquet. Likewise, after last month’s narrow 5-4 vote not to increase the amount of Quantitative...

Categories: Bank of England, Mortgages, Interest rates

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07/03/2012 by Ray Boulger

Bank of Ireland has today announced a 2 stage increase in its SVR from 2.99% to 4.49%, with a 1% increase in June, followed by a further 0.5% in September. ...

Categories: Bank of England, Mortgages, Personal finance, Interest rates

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28/02/2012 by Ray Boulger

This change from Halifax certainly puts a whole new meaning to its catch phrase “The bank that gives you extra.”

Categories: Mortgages, Interest rates

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Terms & conditions

Your initial mortgage consultation is obligation free. There will be a minimum fee for our mortgage service of £450, of which £150 is payable when you apply, and we will retain the commission from the mortgage lender. Alternatively, you can choose the fee only option which is typically 0.65% of the amount borrowed. The precise amount will depend on your circumstances and mortgage loan amount, and will be discussed and agreed before you make a mortgage application.

YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON A MORTGAGE OR ANY DEBT SECURED ON IT

Legals

John Charcol is a trading style of Towergate Financial (West) Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority; our registration number is 147692. John Charcol Associates LLP is an appointed representative of Towergate Financial (West) Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.  Registered office: Towergate House, Eclipse Park, Sittingbourne Road, Maidstone, Kent ME14 3EN. Registered in England No: 02292688.  This mortgage site is only directed at persons within the UK.   The FCA does not regulate some investment mortgage contracts.  Calls may be recorded for training and monitoring. Max call charge from a BT landline is 3.9p per minute. Calls from other networks may vary.