Paula John: Market news

GOING UP...

Almost 150,000 people who bought houses since the start of 2007 are now in negative equity. A survey by CACI found that one in eight of the 1.2 million borrowers who purchased homes since then have a mortgage which is now greater than the value of their home, and 360,000 homeowners could be in negative equity by the end of the year if prices were to fall by a further 13.7 per cent. So far they have lost 6.3 per cent this year. In reality, negative equity is only a problem if you are forced to move home or remortgage, but it is not a comfortable position to be in, and certainly impacts on consumer confidence.

GOING DOWN...

A glimmer of hope among the gloom: the UK's three largest lenders have lowered the interest rates on some of their mortgages. Halifax, Nationwide and Abbey have all trimmed some rates by up to 0.27 per cent. Halifax has cut rates on its tracker mortgages for existing customers looking for a new deal; Abbey has shaved 0.2 per cent off its rates for borrowers with a 25 per cent deposit, and Nationwide reduces its trackers and fixed rates as of today for customers with a 10 per cent deposit. The average reduction is just 0.12 per cent, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

GO FIGURE... 16

Have you bought a property recently? Did you request a Home Information Pack? If so, you are in a minority. Douglas and Gordon reported last week that of the 7,000 buyers who registered with it since HIPs were introduced last year, only 16 have asked to see one. The packs, which cost sellers on average £350, were brought in to speed up the buying and selling process. But data company OneSearch claims that they have failed to do so, not least because local authorities are far slower at providing the searches than they were a year ago, with some councils taking more than 20 days to process a search request.

Paula John is editor-in-chief of 'Your Mortgage'