First-time buyers should sit mortgage exam

Absolutely ridiculous

Unbelievable. Do these so called experts not live in the real world. What he should say is that all first time buyers should receive independent mortgage advice, rather than sit in a branch of a high street bank and receive no 'advice' at all. In the 'real world' it is the mortgage debt that is the symptom of financial mismanagement not the cause. The cause is credit card and unsecured debt taken out because no one can bear to live without new cars, new HD flat screen TVs and everything else. It is not mortgage exams that people need to sit, they need to educated not to spend what you havent got.

Posted by: James Mayne

Silly Idea

The onus should be on lenders to not offer mortgages to people who can't afford them. When I bought my first home I was allowed 2.5 times income plus 1 times my wifes income. Bring in legislation to limit all home loans to these levels and defaults will drop dramatically (as will house prices!!). As a nation we should be ashamed of ourselves being pleased with rising house prices. We should be doing everything in our power to help todays youngsters.

Posted by: Tony Taylor

exams for first time buyers

What a load of cobblers. I am all for education but this is taking it too far. So a person cannot pass an exam, so they are destined not to buy their dream. So a person who stacks shelves or digs holes in the road for a living and is good at their job cannot buy a house because they cannot pass exams This stikes me of another overpaid quango trying to control peoples lives.

Posted by: terry

Absurd

I cannot believe the consumer counselling service pays this idiot a salary.

Posted by: NG

Exams for FTB's

That is the biggest load of *rap I've ever heard in my life - just another way of somebody to make money by people taking exams!

Posted by: A mortgage broker

first time buyers

I think the problem is expectations. At the point of being assessed for a mortgage, the broker or whoever have in front of them, the clients current income and expenditure and affordability is calculated by what ever method. The problem then arises when the clients subsequently go to the bank for a loan of £5000 to £10,000 to furnish the house with completely new furniture and accessories. The next item that then raises its head is that to get to their occupations they need a car each, which is usually nearly if not brand new, which is taken out on some form of monthly payment. This is actually no different to the Northern Rock 120% to 125%. The problem then arises when a person loses their job, gets their overtime cut,long term sick or they have a child which cuts their income.Where this is all leading to is that expectations have changed. When I purchased my first home, it was furnished by scrounging items from our relatives or buying secondhand except the bed of course, so no toddling off to the bank for a loan. The car was an old banger but was paid for.So if anything went wrong there were no major issues. The moral of this missive is that at the point of obtaining the mortgage there were no forseen problems. It was what happened subsequently that caused the problems ,which cannot be laid at the door of brokers or to some extent building societies. Perhaps the banks should shoulder responsibility for issuing persnal loans like confetti and to some extent the clients for having to high expectations which has been driven by society as a whole.

Posted by: terry

April fool

a bit late don't you think! The real problem is first time buyers being convinced that if they do not buy now they will never get on the ladder without which we cannot have a continued rise in property values which underpins our consumer economy. A health warning is a good idea! exams are not.

Posted by: Spike