The number of mortgage complaints recorded by the Financial Ombudsman Service in 2011 decreased by five percent. Despite the fact that the year on year average continued to fall in a downward trend, in the last half of 2011 there were about 38% more complaints than there were during the first six months of the year.

Surprisingly, it is not the increase in mortgage rates that had most people concerned, but instead administrative errors that caused consumers to see their mortgage applications denied unfairly. Most mortgage complaints centered on consumers that were not able to port their mortgage as a result of tighter lending criteria that now make the consumer inapplicable.

Although mortgage contracts generally have conditions placed on them that prevent a consumer from being able to port their mortgage as well, the FOS is able to look at the criteria that is listed and decide if a customer is being fairly denied by a bank. Other complaints that were received in high volume during 2011 include disputes where a lender increased the age limit for a mortgage or increased the cap on the SVR mortgage rates.

Interestingly enough however, overall complaints that centered on the mortgage rates were actually less common during 2011. This is most likely a result of the low base rate that has remained set at 0.5% by the Bank of England and the fact that those whose fixed mortgages ended were met with very low SVRs.

In terms of arrears, about the same amount of complaints were issued as in 2010, but there are more complaints continuing to be heard regarding charges that are being applied to arrears by lenders and the inflexibility of lenders in this situation.

The Financial Ombudsman still hear some repossession cases although they were low in number and mostly concerned complaints about ineffectual communication with the lender. Overall, the Financial Ombudsman Services received a total of about 106,000 complaints in 2011 and out of these 89% were about financial businesses.

Most cases received by the FOS were about payment protection insurance and the FOS expects that they will receive an even higher record amount about PPI this year as well. This is due to the backlog of PPI cases that are currently being addressed by the banks.

One out of every three mortgage applications approved by Yorkshire Building Society are for offset mortgages, and the building society announced that they are proud to now be able to offer these products for their tenth year.

The advantage of offset mortgages is that they bring with them lower mortgage rates, allowing consumers to save a larger amount of money over time. As a limited amount of lenders offer this option, many home mortgage seekers are not even aware that they have this option open to them.

Jenna Smith, mortgage product manager for Yorkshire Building Society, stated that as one of the first building societies to be able to offer offset mortgages as a choice for consumers, they believe that the offset option offers a great opportunity to savvy customers.

Smith continued to explain that based on their own figures it is easy to see how an offset mortgage can actually make a difference in homeowners’ finances when you figure how much they save over time in interest. The drop in mortgage rates also has helped homeowners to save money, along with the unique mortgage product offering.

In 2011, the average home mortgage account was estimated at about £184,000, out of which an offset mortgage borrower held about £51,000 in their offset savings. Therefore, about 28% of their mortgage was offset. Based on this term, over a 25 year mortgage term a monthly payment would cost the much lower figure of £971 and a mortgage could be paid off in just five years.

This saves the average home owner about £63,000 in interest that would have built up if the mortgage rates stayed aligned with what they are now over the course of the next five years. Many people believe that an offset mortgage is only a good option for those that have a large savings, but according to Yorkshire even those who are only able to place £2500 aside in an offset savings account could reduce a mortgage valued at £1000 by about half a year saving about £4,000 in total interest.

In addition, placing £25 a month in an offset savings account every month for term could help shorten a mortgage term by about nine month,s resulting in an overall savings of £5,000 when you add up interest that does not have to be paid.

For those who have not yet remortgaged in an effort to take advantage of low mortgage rates, the good news is that there are still some great deals out there on the market. In fact, with interest rates remaining low and the Bank of England base rate staying at its current low, the market is still able to offer some of the best mortgage rates of the last few years.

Given the fact that the base rate is expected to stay depressed for at least another 18 months, with some experts predicting it will stay down until 2017, a fixed mortgage may not even be the best bet. Instead, lenders are starting to push their tracker and variable mortgage rates and some experts are starting to agree that for the best deals this may be the way for homeowners to go.

Over the last two months there has been a significant amount of new deals available for first time home buyers and many of these are also great deals for those who need to remortgage to take advantage of.  This is partially due to the fact that the stamp duty holiday on new home purchases will end near the end of March.

Those that can now swing a 90% LTV may want to take advantage of the new two year fixed mortgages that are being offered by HSBC, set at the low price of 3.84%. What makes this deal particularly enticing to home owners is the fact that there are no fees associated with the deal so if approved all that is owed is the deposit or equity in the home. Also attractive is a First Direct product that is set at 4.19% for two years, although this deal does come with a £999 fee.

Of course, those who have a home and equity may instead want to look into a mortgage deal that offers better rates for a higher LTV, such as the Mommouthshire Building Society deal that requires an 80% LTV but offers 3.35% for three years without any associated fees.

A better option for those willing to take a chance with the variable mortgage market comes from the Marsden Building Society, which is also based on an 80% LTV but starts at 3.19%. There is a £598 fee for the loan offer but valuation is free and remortgaging homeowners receive a £250 rebate.

TMBC, the commercial mortgage and buy to let lending specialists, have launched a new deal in conjunction with Hinckley & Rugby Building Society that will see their mortgage rates drop by as much as 0.5% for those who take up their new two year offers.

The new rate will be set at 3.25% for mortgages that come with a free valuation for those who can manage a 60% LTV or better.  In addition, there are no charges for early repayment for those who rush to take advantage of the market.

The low commercial mortgage rates do have an attached £999 completion fee and £250 arrangement fee which is common place with high buy to let or commercial investments.  Therefore, those that want to take advantage of the low property prices on the market right now will want to take a look at the TMBC deal which the chief executive of the company, Andy Young, states is designed to help make it an attractive product for those that want to remortgage or purchase new rental properties.

He added that the free valuation will help reduce the standard upfront costs that come with securing a new mortgage or remortgage. It is expected that it will be most popular among those looking for low buy to let mortgage rates as the housing market is quickly becoming a rental market.

Intermediary development consultant Gill Vernau for Hinckley & Rugby stated that last year was an excellent year for the buy to let market and with more improvements and great deals such as the one they are offering with TMBC, 2012 looks like it will also be a great year. He added that the company is looking to offer more buy to let products to interested investors.

Vernau also stated that the aim of Hinckley & Rugby right now is to increase the amount of loans they have available at the low 60% LTV rate to help encourage landlords to take a second look at increasing their portfolios.

He added that the building society expects to see a rise in the amount of new applicants that take a second look at the product offer simply because of the low LTV and the fact that it will allow those who already have properties to reduce their mortgage rate and potentially afford more properties in the future.

Despite the fact that over the last few weeks many lenders are increasing their mortgage deal costs because of the rising costs of lending, many private banks are still offering some of the best mortgage rates available out there on the market.

Last week saw major lenders such as UBS, RBS Private, and Barclays Wealth increase their average mortgage rates due to the fact that the wholesale markets have increased their funding costs. This has been disappointing to those who had hoped to secure a low mortgage before the housing market turned around.

USB increased its pricing by about 1.5 points above the interbank lending rate and then another 1.6 points for loans that have a 65% LTV or less. For those with higher LTV’s, the bank increased their rate by another 1.85%. Barclays Wealth followed suit, choosing to increase its tracker deals by about 0.3% and its fixed mortgages by another 0.1%.

RBS Private chose to do the same by increasing their tracker rates by about 0.2% and adding on additional fees of around £1,500, which is high enough to keep many potential home owners away from the market. Despite the fact that some of the banks are sharply increasing their offers, private banks continue to offer the best mortgage rates out there for homeowners that want to borrow large sums of money.

In fact, for those who happen to be searching for a loan on a home that is valued at over £1m, private banks are the best options according to many analysts. Mortgage broker Nigel Bedford stated that many high street lenders that offer large amounts will not offer competitive rates, with banks such as Lloyds Banking Group choosing not to offer interest only loans for those seeking amounts higher than £1m.

However, private banks such as Clydesdale Bank will offer a two year discount rate as low as 2.68% for the same type of million pound loan. Nationwide will also toss in a two year tracker set at 3.39% that is pretty evenly matched with the Halifax 3.84% deal for the same multimillion deal.

The truth is that most private banks will offer rates that are set closer to the Libor due to the fact that they are willing to play with their mortgage figures a bit more, making them a great choice for high mortgage loans.

After the last few years have been spent with most first time home buyers spending their time saving instead of purchasing because of high LTV’s on most home mortgages many home buyers are starting to feel relief as some lenders are offering 5% LTVs.

Five years ago there were hundreds of different 5% LTVs for homeowners, allowing first time home buyers to easily jump onto the market, but as mortgage rates continued to fluctuate and the credit crunch hurt lenders everywhere these deals slowly dropped off the radar, until now.

The fact that such low LTVs are on the market at all in 2012 is quite a surprise as most brokers called for sharp increases in mortgage rates and tighter credit restrictions due to the unstable economy and the looming eurozone crisis.

However, those seeking to buy may just have some ground to stand on if they can get out there and take advantage of the surprise that the first few weeks of 2012 have offered them, because if there is one thing for certain, it is that low rates and low LTVs are not going to last much longer.

Leeds Building Society was one of the first lenders to offer a mortgage with a 5% deposit attached to it. Of course, it also comes with an interest rate of 5.25% which is pretty high considering the average best mortgage rates that are out there right now.

It also has £999 attached to it in fees, but for those that will never likely be able to scrape together an LTV that is 75% or more this is a fantastic way to get a step onto the property ladder and get some equity built up to make future home purchases a bit less stressful.

Ipswich and Newcastle building societies also have 95% LTV deals on the market that were introduced last week and John Charcol the broker stated that they will also offer a low deposit home purchase scheme at the beginning of February aimed at helping first time home buyers out.

On the other hand, buyers that can manage a 90% LTV should take a look over at HSBC and their low 3.84% which can be a significant amount of savings for those that can afford a bit more upfront on their new home purchase.

Crystal Mortgages, a Walsall based firm, is hailing 2011 as an ‘outstanding’ year that helped the company to grow in strength.  The company prides itself as being an independent commercial mortgage finance loan specialist offering a vast away of lending choices for those who are considering investing in commercial property.  Over the course of 2011 the company has announced figures that show they completed about 37% of all applications and brought in £250 million in new business mortgage applications.  While most of the mortgages that the company receives are commercial property based, they also offer some buy to let products to interested consumers

The average loan size offered from the company did decrease by about £20,000 which is against the national trends that saw average loan sizes increase year on year, but the small drop was allowed for by the company given that they saw a 13% increase in the amount of applications they received by those interested in securing a commercial mortgage. A few huge deals also helped such as their largest completion mortgage that was £1,177,500 that had a turnaround from the time it was in the application stages to the market in just 35 days.

Senior underwriter for Crystal Mortgages, Roger Dewsbery, stated that the figures are outstanding and indicate that 2011 was one of the best performance years for the company.  He added that the company continues to work on improving their finance options and offering bridge loan products to help clients that previously may have had problems securing funding.  In order to help continue to report strong mortgage numbers the company has a few new products on the market for 2012 some of which offer some reasonable mortgage rates given the fact that many High Street Banks are starting to raise theirs.

One of the new products offered by Crystal Mortgages is their sitting tenant discounts that allows businesses with solid accounts to help get as high as 100% of their purchase price if the tenant  is buying the premise that they want from their landlord.  They also have a full portfolio of buy to let products that can offer loans as high as £10,000,000 and as low as £25,000 to investors that are looking to bulk up their portfolios are reasonable buy to let mortgage rates.  For those within certain sectors such as vets, doctors, and pharmacies there are also a wide array of products available.

Although the Bank Rate has stayed stable at .5% over the past few years, mortgage rates are still increasing, and over the past few months they have increased noticeably as many people fear that there may be a second banking crisis within the UK.

Senior technical manager for John Charcol, Ray Boulger, stated that the cost of variable mortgages and fixed mortgages set at low rates have continued to increase as a result of the Eurozone banking sector which forced lenders to charge more for their loans. However, even with rates on the rise, there are some fixed mortgages out there that are worth taking a look at by potential home buyers looking for a great deal.

For instance, Newcastle Building Society announced a new two year fixed deal that starts at 5.95% for a 95% LTV that can be an excellent choice for first time home buyers that cannot afford a large deposit.  The loan does come with a £995 fee, but for those who need a bit more help there is a 6.25% fixed rate deal that comes without any fee and an offer of £300 cashback.

On the other hand, those that are in the market for a remortgage and have not yet switched their mortgage, but want to lock down the best mortgage rates before they jump up, a deal from HSBC may be worth checking out.

This is due to the fact that HSBC has a life time tracker that starts at 1.99% above the current base rate and will maintain this rate for life and is available with a 65% LTV. There aren’t any fees attached to this deal and there is also no charge for early repayment, making it an attractive deal for those who want to maintain some sense of security.

Finally, those that want a bit more security than banking on the Base Rate may want to check out a two year fixed mortgage from Chelsea Building Society that comes with a LTV of 85% and a mortgage rate of 3.69% with a £395 fee.

On the other hand, chantey Economic Building Society offers a five year fixed deal to borrowers that want a longer term with a 4.4% rate and the same 85% LTV.  Included in the later offer however is free legal work or free valuation making it worth checking out.

There has been a lot of concern in the news about the housing market starting to stall again as mortgage rates slowly inching back up due to economic concerns.  This has led many to fear that the market for first time home buyers may get even worse, making the dream of owning a home something that will completely disappear.

However, banking giant Nationwide has stepped up amidst the fears to tempt first time home buyers back into their doors with an offer that is hard to beat, compared to what is currently out there on the market. Right now, Nationwide is offering a first time buyer a two year fixed mortgage term set at 5.59% that only requires a ten percent deposit.

The low LTV should help encourage those who have thought that fixed mortgages were out of their reach, but there is an attached £900 product fee attached that can still be a bit intimidating.  However, for those that need a little more help the product fee can be waived if a homeowner chooses the higher priced mortgage set at 5.69%.

Outside of the new deals for first time home buyers, Nationwide is also offering a handful of deals to other qualifying customers, as well as including a five year fixed rate term that is set at 3.59% with an attached LTV of 70%.  This deal comes with a £99 booking fee and a £900 product fee and is open for remortgages, existing customers, and for home purchases.

For those without the ability to pay the fees the same deal is available with just the £99 booking fee and a £400 product fee although the rate is set a bit higher at 3.79%. Head of mortgages for Nationwide, Martyn Dyson, stated that the banking institute is hoping to support the housing market by offering more 90% LTV mortgage deals to those who need a leg up in the mortgage market.

Dyson announced this is why they now have two year products for those who need a 90% LTV with two-five year terms. Given the fact that most banks are getting stricter with their lending criteria, this is excellent news for anyone that is in need of a great mortgage to purchase their first home.

With many people looking into the New Year hoping for improved mortgage prospects, the figures from the last quarter of 2011’s housing market have been released, shining what is hoped to be a little light at the end of the tunnel for those that have been reading the experts warnings that the housing market may collapse again.

Now that mortgage rates are steadily starting to increase once more, and the Eurozone crisis has made lending criteria a bit stricter again due to the high costs of lending between banks, many potential home owners are wary of approaching the market.

However, some lenders have been working hard to help lenders secure a home either by offering special deals via conventional means or introducing new programmes like equity loans that proved to be successful during November of 2011.

In fact, while many financial experts believed that lending approvals would drop harshly in November as a result of the Eurozone crisis, they in fact jumped up to the highest that they have been over the past two years showing an increase of 4%.  This could be due to the fact that banks are now working harder to publish attractive mortgage rates, or LTV’s, in an effort to draw more home buyers through their doors.

Overall, the figures proved to be 15% when compared to the amount of mortgage approvals in November of 2010 and low LTVs valued at less than 15% actually made up 13% of all of the lending that was approved during the month.

Some experts believe that the increase is the result of the banks altering the way they lend to accommodate the new needs of lenders in today’s economy. Another reason may be that buy to let mortgages were up as landlords have started to take advantage of the renting society to get a larger cut of the market.

Despite this fact, the Council of Mortgage Lenders is still concerned that gross mortgage lending rates are going to be down when compiled for all quarters of 2011, and not just the last quarter, and expects to see gross mortgage lending over 2012 continue to drop.  In fact, the CML dropped its estimate for gross lending in 2012 to £133 billion which is a large drop from its previous prediction of £150 billion, as the weaker economy is expected to drag down the housing market.