New Equity Support Loans
Many people who have bought a house through a home owner loan or mortgage with a high loan to value over the course of the past few years and would now like to move, are finding that they are unable to do so, due to not having sufficient equity in their home, or even facing negative equity, due to falls in house prices.
In order to help their home owner loan customers out of this problem, Lloyds Bank and the Halifax have launched their Equity Support Mortgage loan, to allow people to move house, despite not having sufficient equity in their property.
It is estimated that around 19 per cent of home owners took out their home owner loan at the top of the market and somewhere in the region of one in twenty people with secured loans on their homes are currently in a negative equity situation.
The new deal from Lloyds will allow their existing customers to borrow up to 120 per cent loan to value on a new loan, which could allow many would be movers to bridge the gap between the loan amount which would normally be available and the funds they require to be able to move house.
Although this product is only available to existing Lloyds and Halifax loan customers and is only available directly through the bank, it is hoped that this product will encourage some extra growth within the housing and home owner loan market, by encouraging people to move house.
Colin Walsh of Lloyds Banking Group said “The government has made it clear that there is no more money available so we’ve got to work with what we’ve got. I think it’s time for the government to take a more holistic view of the housing market.”
