Trade Bodies

The Council of Mortgage Lenders, Citizens Advice and Shelter have called on the Government to tell the FSA to regulate sale and leaseback schemes in a bid to protect consumers.

Buy-to-let advisers will benefit from the changing interest rate environment as landlords seek to refinance their portfolios and keep them as cost effective as possible.

Barclays' plans to shift its headquarters to Amsterdam as part of its £80bn negotiations with Dutch bank ABN Amro are likely to raise concerns about the firm's regulation by the FSA, reports the Guardian .

Lending figures published by the Building Societies Association and the British Bankers' Association have strengthened the case for hawks at the Monetary Policy Committee.

The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries says advisers are struggling to keep up with regulatory changes and the cost of regulatory.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has revised up its forecasts for housing market activity for 2006 and 2007, saying it now expects house prices to end this year 7% higher than at the start up from 2% in February.

Recent data on the buy-to-let market suggests a strong year for residential property investment, claims Paragon Mortgages.

Gross mortgage lending totalled £21.8bn in February, 5% lower than January's £23bn but 22% higher than the £17.9bn lent in February 2005, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has expressed "serious concern" to the government over whether home information packs (Hips) will be implemented on time and the risks of making over-optimistic assumptions about their market impact.

The latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) show gross mortgage lending has risen 5% in November, the most since July 2004.