The British Property Federation has recently declared that commercial property throughout the UK is still feeling some of the effects of the recession, as director of policy Ian Fletcher states that commercial lots were late to feel the effects however will also be late in recovering from them. As a result many retail occupiers of commercial space are beginning to go out of business, adding additional strain to the commercial property sector as the rest of the economy is just beginning to recover from record lows earlier this year.

This trend is paralleled by virtually all commercial property throughout Europe, as investment revenue has dropped approximately 40% over 2008 numbers for both the continent and the isles. For many owners and investors this has meant bad news since October 2007 when the economic recession first hit full-swing, however this could also mean potential opportunities for those looking at the other end of the spectrum.

With prices continuing to fluctuate across the UK commercial property board this could open up many doors for new ventures as older businesses that once held key commercial space are closing down permanently. Given a condition such as now where the UK’s commercial property investments are the top in Europe – accounting for nearly 38% of all direct investments in commercial land with a grand total of 25 billion Euros in 2008 – and many investors are overly focused on some particular main available locations the current trend may open up new investment doors that may not have been available just a few short months previously.

Along with the fluctuating markets also anticipate banks to be offering better mortgage rates to investors in order to stimulate the economy and encourage a positive trend in 2010, especially in the commercial real estate sector in order to allow for businesses to maintain some strength as the economy is beginning to recover. Be on the lookout for beneficial fixed mortgages as well, as these may be quite positive in the early 2010.

Quick Starting Tips to Make Your First Mortgage Simple.

There are thousands of questions that come to mind for those seeking their first mortgage.  So to take a little of the stress off, we are going to give you all the questions you need to ask.  Don’t worry.  With all these questions will come many of the answers.  That way you are not left wandering throughout your days trying answers endless questions.

What is a mortgage?

A mortgage is a loan specifically designed for those who are wanting to buy property.  This includes both commercial and residential properties.  There is a loan for everything these days, from auto loans to personal loans, so why not have a loan that is specifically for those wanting to buy property right?

What things should be considered in choosing a mortgage type?

The basics questions you need to answer are the following:

1.What are you buying the property for?

For each type of property, the is a different type of mortgage that offers different benefits.  With this being your first mortgage, there are often special offers for first-time home buyers.  However, if you are buying commercial property you might want to check into commercial mortgages as well.  Often the difference in first time mortgages are in regards to interest rates.

2. Which fits your financial budget most comfortably?

This part is often in reference to interest rate options.  The two primary choices you have here are fixed rate and variable rate mortgages.  A fixed rate will guarantee the same interest rate being applied to the balance of the loan.  This means that you will make payments of the same amount every single month until the debt paid off. When it comes to variable interest rates, the are often compounding interest.  The rate has the potential to change.  The good news is, that it typically has a pre-disclosed range.  In regards to the compounding interest, since you could have equal monthly payments you may not always pay off all the interest.  If that is the case then you will be charged interest on the accumulated interest.  Getting complicated?  Basically have them run the figures for you rather than simply going off suggestion.  You can see which really works out best for you, as all our financial situations are a little different.

3. What extra options are important?

You want to look for things such as early payoff benefits (or penalties), mortgage insurance (just in case money gets a little tight for unexpected reasons, and remortgage options in case of lowered future interest rates.

Is it really this simple?

We would love to say this really is all there is to it, but you want to make sure you really take time to look into your options.  That is what we truly want to stress here.  It does not have to be hard or distressing, but it does require research.  This information will help you get started off on the right foot and make things run a little smoother.

The recession is certainly taking a hit on all facets of UK living from the amount that mortgage rates are currently offered to the price houses, which seem to be falling.

One of the other areas that seems to be hit the hardest is the unemployment rate which seems to be at its worst since 1995.

According to the Office for National Statistics, in the second quarter of this year, they have finally reported that some 2.43 million are unemployed which is an increase of approximately 220-thousand individuals.

According to the Office, the unemployment rate was 7.8% for the three months up into June of 2009. That’s a jump of around 0.7% from the previous quarter. Vacancy rates are not included with this count however that means that there are quite a few additional jobs which aren’t being filled.

The Office also says that average earnings, without bonuses, has fallen from the previous quarter. When you included the bonuses, however, the rate has increased.

Statistics also show that the employment rate for individuals of a working age is around 73% for the three months leading to June of 2009, which has been a decline of almost 1% from the previous quarter and 2% when you include the whole year.

The statistics also show that some 28.9-million individuals have applied for unemployment benefits over the quarter ending June 2009 but not all of them are on the roles as of yet. The annual growth rate, excluding bonuses, is the lowest since the Office has been collecting the information which began in 2001.

The next update for the Office for National Statistics to update their information will be when the quarter ends in late September 2009 and that should give a better direction of where unemployment is heading in the country even though we receive monthly figures in between.

A string of companies including Ingard, Exclusive Connections, SimplyBiz, The Mortgage Alliance, Stirling & Law and Genesis Home Loans, as well as Mortgage 2000 ‘Encore’ users, have contributed to the rapid growth by selecting Mortgage Brain as their preferred solution for mortgage sourcing. Mark Lofthouse, CEO of Mortgage Brain, comments, “With this announcement we want the mortgage industry to know that we’re the only sourcing company prepared to offer guaranteed mortgage product details with the launch of Mortgage Brain Premier Plus+. With its release, we’ve seen a huge increase in the number of companies and mortgage advisers exclusively selecting our products and services.”

He continued by saying,“Intermediaries have been asking for guaranteed product data and we’re delighted to be the first and only sourcing system to deliver it, ensuring they have the confidence in the system they use is of paramount importance and a huge deciding factor when choosing software solutions to help manage their businesses.”

He finished by saying, “Quite simply, mortgage advisers are turning to Mortgage Brain as they see us as the best and most reliable sourcing system on the market and one in which they can confidently place their trust.”

Premier Plus+ is Mortgage Brain’s new and innovative mortgage sourcing system, which guarantees product data to give intermediaries complete confidence in the advice they give their client.

The Bank of England confirmed the expectations of many when it decided to hold the base rate down to 0.5% again for the fifth straight month in a row.

Analysts are predicting that this base rate isn’t going to change anytime soon as long as unemployment is high and the recession still looms.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has decided to pump another 50-billion pounds into the system to help get banks on their feet again.

The low base rate is a boon for tracker mortgages as they are based off of the base rate with an added percentage of interest added to the number. There is approximately 3-million homeowners with tracker mortgages who have made out on this deal.

Fixed rate mortgage owners aren’t seeing much in the benefit of a low base rate as many homeowners had their rate locked down before the base rate began to fall. Companies, such as Nationwide, cut their rates this past week for future borrowers but that doesn’t do much for those who have already locked in their rate for some time to come.

According to Moneysupermarket, “The cheapest two-year fixed rate deal on the market is currently from First Direct, priced at 3.34% and with a 1,498-pounds arrangement fee. However, the deal is reserved for homeowners who only need to borrow 60% of the property value.”

According to the company, 90% deals are becoming increasingly difficult to ascertain. To receive a deal like that you’ll need to have an excellent credit rating and employment that is quite secure to gain that type of mortgage.

According to the Building Cost Information Service of RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), tenders prices remain depressed. The main reason behind this is that the construction workloads continue to fall basically because of the current recession.

According to their figures, new construction fell by some 4.9% in the first quarter of the year when you compare it with figures in 2008. BCIS also predicts that the tender prices could see a total fall of some 14.9% by 2011 and that is when they figure that they will recover somewhat.

On a good note, costs don’t seem to be climbing at the same rate. According to their figures, we’ve only seen a 4% incline in pricing, compared to the 7.7% seen in the previous quarter.

According to the survey, construction should continue to fall for the remainder of this year, doing slightly better in 2010. This year expect another fall of some 6.1% according to the data. Growth is expected again in 2011 and should rise by approximately 0.5%.

Joe Martin, the Executive Director of BCIS commented, “Despite some more positive news coming from the construction industry recently, it is clear that we are a long way from being out of the woods. Workloads are still significantly down on previous levels, with the private sector still set to bear the brunt of the decline. As a result it is likely that the price of construction work is going to continue falling for some time. However some of the pressure is easing on the costs side, which will be welcome news to those contractors who had perhaps priced too competitively.”

Although it hasn’t been seen often, there is always a chance that a landlord could be involved in racial discrimination when letting out a home or apartment. There are laws against this type of action but there is always the opportunity that this could happen.

Recently, the NAEA (National Association of Estate Agents) made a statement about this practice when it concerns its members.

Peter Bolton King, the Chief Executive of the organization made a statement about this practice, “NAEA is committed to setting the highest standards for lettings professionals, for the benefit of both the general public and the wider industry.”

He continued, “NAEA members must comply with our Rules of Conduct. Our Code of Practice for Lettings Agents makes it very clear that any form of discrimination is unacceptable and will not be tolerated: Rule 1e states ‘You must offer equality of professional service to any person, regardless of their race, religious belief, gender, sexuality, disability or nationality. You must not be involved in any plan or arrangement to discriminate against a person or people because of their race, religious belief, gender, sexuality, disability or nationality.’”

He ended by saying, “Racial discrimination is appalling behavior, which may be illegal. A letting agent simply cannot assist a landlord with refusing a tenant due to racial motivations. NAEA has asked the BBC to share any information it has that indicates misconduct by NAEA members. NAEA may take disciplinary action, which could lead to membership being withdrawn.”

The NAEA seems pretty stern in its belief and action that discrimination should not take place within its membership.

Northern Rock has declared an underlying loss to the tune of 269.6 million pounds for the period ending June 30, 2009. This compares with a lost of 443.3 million that they had lost for the first half of 2008. The company doesn’t think that number will change much when it rolls around to the end of the year if much change at all.

Part of the loss was the rebate of charges incurred for State funding, albeit the help that they received from the federal government.

Their record for lending for mortgage lending and other loans was quite substantial, where their record for gross residential lending as 1.3-billion pounds to the general public through June of 2009. The overall expected lending for the year is forecast to be near 4-billion pounds rather than the 5-billion that they had projected.

Deposits were quite respectable, with the amount of 18.4-billion pounds at the end of the half year however this is somewhat lower than the 19.6-billion pounds that it had during the beginning of the new year.

Gary Hoffman, Chief Executive Officer said this about the company, "The current environment continues to be challenging, however, against this backdrop Northern Rock is making progress against its revised plan and has delivered results in line with expectations. We anticipate receiving State aid approval in the autumn and the legal and capital restructuring of the Company to be completed by the end of the year. This ultimately prepares for a return to the private sector."

The company is splitting itself up into two companies. One handling deposits and new loans and the other will handle existing loans as well as paying back the money that it owes to the government for loans that it received.

Landlords let their apartments and houses rent for a certain monthly fee so that they can continue to pay for the property, pay expenses and garner some income for themselves.

They depend on the tenants to keep up to day with the rental fees that they charge.

According to research company BDRC there is a certain amount of the population that have fallen behind in their rent payments causing duress for the landlords.

According to the research, the 18% arrears figure that was reported in the first quarter of 2008 has grown to approximately 30% some fifteen months later. 32% of those that were in arrears resulted in direct action by their landlords and this included the eviction process.

The eviction process can be a long drawn out process that includes giving proper notices and then taking the tenant through court to have them removed, if they don’t do that by themselves.

On the other hand, 19% of those landlords survey felt that the prospect was good that they would have a good rental record for their properties in the upcoming quarter.

One of the reasons that landlords are experiencing this type of environment is due to the recession and the amount of unemployment that is currently being felt throughout the country.

BDRC also said that landlords are experiencing arrears like they never have had happened since they started tracking that market in 2006.

The price of a typical house rose for the third consecutive month in July, according to Nationwide, increasing by 1.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis. The 3 month on 3 month rate of change – generally indicated a smoother indicator of the near term trend which rose from 1.0% in June to 2.6% in July, the highest level since February 2007.

House prices are still 6.2% lower than 12 months ago, but this represents another sharp improvement from the 9.3% year-on-year decline in June.

Even if prices were to remain unchanged for the rest of 2009, the year-on-year rate would continue to improve since prices were falling very sharply in the second half of last year. For the first seven months of 2009 as a whole, prices have risen by a cumulative 1.3%, suggesting there is now a reasonable chance that prices could end the year slightly higher than where they started.

Although this outcome has come as a surprise, it is not inconsistent with other economic indicators and asset prices, which have also bounced back somewhat after very severe declines around the turn of the year.

During turbulent economic times, it is not unusual for economic indicators and asset prices to overshoot in one direction and then experience a correction in the other.

In the specific case of the housing market, the very sharp decline in transactions over the course of 2008 produced a fairly large pool of prospective purchasers who were ready and able to buy in principle, but did not want to do so in the very uncertain conditions prevailing when the banking crisis was at its peak last autumn.

The improvement in housing market conditions, however, does not mean that the positive price trends of recent months can be extrapolated into the future in a straight line. If prices continue to increase at the rate of the last three months, they would soon rise to levels that would be noticeably out of line with earnings, rents and other fundamental determinants of housing valuations.

One should also not underestimate the impact over time of high unemployment, which has implications both for buyer confidence and the financial pressure on existing owners to sell.

It is unlikely, therefore, that price increases can be sustained for long at the very strong rate observed over the last few months.