Selling properties, especially investment properties and buy to let properties used to be quite easy. Sorry to all the sales people out there, but it did.

Having previously worked for a property investment company, I know that it was plausible to push through 4 – 5 deals a week, very rarely without any lending problems and mortgage approvals tended to be easier than finding a Manchester United fan in London. Those were the glory days of lending and up until a year ago the level of lending was at a record high and the amount of buy-to-let mortgages that were being approved was staggering, also accompanied by some of the best rates investors had ever seen.

Some would say this is the reason we are in the midst of a recession and struggling, but that is another blog, one of which we have covered and will cover elsewhere.

Recently, I brought a couple of stunning BMV deals to the table, as we felt that after a year in which we would not touch property, we now had a couple of deals that really did make sense to the investor. This was due to better discounts, newer and an increased amount of decent mortgage rates and just the general feeling that property had hit its lowest level and was now starting to recover, according to reports from leading lenders and banking institutions.

We sold Penn Lane within a couple of days and currently have offers on the further two properties that we have on our books, but we kept hitting a common discussion with some of our investors – “would love to buy it, I am just too old, I wont get the mortgage”.

As with anything, previous misconceptions had started to creep back in to investors minds. Some of our investors tried to get a mortgage just as things were starting to look really bad and were hit with many reasons why they would not be approved, one of them being age which is in fact in relation to risk. This had then been indented into their investment strategy and they were probably now missing out on deals that they really wanted to get involved with.

We work with one mortgage broker and a quick call to them to inform them of this supposed age issue and we were met with they reply that this indeed was not really the case anymore, and in fact we could offer mortgages to people in their late 50’s and beyond. Chris then went back to the investor, forms went in, and he is now waiting to complete on the deal next week, which is a bonus not only for us, but also for the investor that a year ago was simply not able to go through with these deals any more.

In April last year mortgage lenders got edgy, they were panicking, they knew trouble was ahead and they were refusing mortgages for many reasons. In fact, I can not mention the name, but I knew of one mortgage that would not go through this time last year because the property had decking!!

With mortgage lending now recovering, new criteria are in coming into play and some old reasons to refuse are falling away.

Are you too old for a mortgage on an investment property? Ask us, you might just be surprised.

Some good news has been reported from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA) this morning, with early indications showing that mortgage approvals rose in January, with approval levels hitting 23,376 last month, up 4% from 22,416 in December.

But, as it seems with every other story that has some good news in it, there is also some not so positive reports, with the number of approvals in January still 43% lower than the same month a year earlier.

Hardly surprising in the current climate, but the fact that mortgage lending is continuing to rise month on month could be taken as a sign that we are starting to emerge from the gloomy mist which has been partially caused by the lack of lending over the past 6 or 7 months.

BBA statistics director, David Dooks, said of the latest data:

“The high street banks’ mortgage lending is still seeing double-digit annual growth, albeit in a much slower market. Lower borrowing costs and falling property prices have underpinned demand at these lenders, who are providing over two-thirds of all new mortgage lending. There is only limited demand from households for unsecured credit, while a fall in their deposits in January reflects a tendency to draw on cash or to move into alternative financial products.

“Lending to non-financial companies rose after two monthly falls, with modest increases in several industrial categories, while finance for other financial companies reversed the year-end fall in lending.”

The BBA also reported that in January, net mortgage lending rose by £2.9 billion, consumer credit rose in line with the recent average and overall company finance increased by £14.1 billion, reversing the previous month’s fall.

However, personal deposits fell by £2.3 billion as spending drained cash and savers sought alternative deposit products.

It is good to see some positive comments from the BBA, hopefully which will hopefully encourage more people to apply for mortgages who might not have previously considered applying, as they thought they did not stand much of chance in being approved. If we see another month of increased approvals for February, indications would suggest that the housing slump has reached its lowest bottom point and that the only way from here on in is up.

But, until we see the figures from the BBA and other leading bodies next month, we will take the positives from the news today and hope there is much more to come.

My morning started with Take That on the radio telling me this could be the greatest day of our lives, and then a report from the British Bankers Association informing me that the mortgage lending rose in December, indicating the start of a possible recovery for our shattered economy. Coincidence?

With nine out of ten news stories indicating the end of the financial world, it is refreshing and relieving to finally hear some positive news on this cloudy Monday morning.

Figures indicated that approvals for house purchases in December were around 22,000, up from around 17,300 in November. This figure is still 46% down on this time last year, but to see an extra 5,000 mortgages approved in what is traditionally one of the weakest months for selling houses, is excellent news and a sure sign that investors and home buyers are now starting to understand it is a great time to buy, with some amazing bargains on the market.

2008 was undoubtedly a lot harder for mortgage lenders and estate agents than the previous few years, with borrowing at a much lower rate, and the BBA backed this up.

BBA statistics director, David Dooks, said of the latest data:

“This first opportunity to compare 2008 with 2007 shows that gross mortgage lending by the main high street banks totalled £170bn, some 23% below 2007’s total of £221bn. However, lending by the rest of the mortgage market was half the previous year’s total, showing how mortgage lending became much more concentrated during the year. The banks approved less than half the 2007 number of loans for house purchase, reflecting falling demand from households facing greater economic uncertainty and double-digit falls in house prices over the year which led to a wait-and-see mentality.

“Consumer credit was very weak in December as people reined in their credit card spending, despite early Sales and heavy discounting by retailers. This consumer caution was also reflected in personal deposits, which rose strongly.”

There are obvious problems at the moment but we are starting to see a rise in house sales, more mortgage companies offering more products and a general raise in enquiries reported by many estate agents. The question that will be asked is will this continue for the next few months or even the year, or will this rise only last a couple of months before things take another turn for the worse.

We will not know until it happens and I am sure there are more ups and downs ahead, but we must take notice of the fact that more people are now buying homes than in November, which in turn will not only help the economy but also give some relief to the many companies related to property.

With Discover and Invest launching our first Property Investment deals next week, this news is more welcome than a cold beer on a summers evening.

It is not every morning you get a thought of the day from a computer questionnaire about your lifestyle. But today I had just that.

Every so often I take part in official surveys and questionnaires, ranging from questions about my life to what I think about certain products and even well known people.

One question on the questionnaire today had me thinking. It was such a simple question but left me feeling a little bit annoyed, worried, anxious, perplexed and many other adjectives and the reason for this will become clear.

The question was a simple “Do You Own Your Home” – with the options as follows –

• I own my home
• I rent my house
• I live with parents / relatives
• Prefer not to say

I live in a 2 bedroom house with two parking spaces outside that has a mortgage on it. It is my mortgage, I paid my deposit, filled in the forms, pay a monthly payment to the mortgage lender and yes, I would call this my home. But, logically, this is not my home, I only own 10% of it, which might allow me to say half of the kitchen is mine but the rest is owned by the mortgage company.

Effectively, if you have a mortgage you do not own your home, the lender, in most cases the mortgage company does. It is a bit like buying a car on hire purchase, the lender will own the car until you pay the loan back and housing is no different.

If you are on a repayment mortgage, over time you start to own more and more of your home, but until that mortgage is complete you will never be in full control. Of course, should you be on an interest only, you never own your home; you are basically just renting it from the mortgage company.

Such a simple question provoked a thought I have never had before, despite living here for three years. I would go as far to say I am renting, just not from a landlord or agent, from a mortgage company.

Maybe I am looking at things from a somewhat simplistic view, but next time someone or something asks me if I own my home, I am sure my answer will always be yes, but in the back of mind I will know that I will never own my home, I am just a glorified tenant.