The no win, no fee brigade is starting to target homeowners who think they may have been mis-sold their contractor mortgage.

Many homeowners, worried about future interest rate rises, are looking to fixed rate mortgages and mortgage lending companies are capitalising on this trend by increasing the fees they charge on their most competitive products.

The Leeds building society has said that it will dramatically increase its mortgage lending this year. In fact the financial institution intends to lend 40% more this year than last, bringing the total advanced for home loans to about £1.4 billion. The announcement was made after last Wednesday’s budget.

Inflation keeps increasing, putting further pressure on already stretched monthly household budgets. Whilst there isn’t much we can do about it, homeowners can at least fix their contractor mortgage repayments.

House prices have risen by an average of 0.8% this month, according to Rightmove. A typical home is now up for sale at £231,790, an increase of 0.9% this time last year. There has also been a rise of 5% in the number of listings compared to March last year.

The budget is done and dusted for another year and George Osborne did offer a glimmer of hope to first time buyers.

The rate at which banks lend to each other has impacted some contractor mortgage rates according to a recent survey by thisismoney.co.uk.

There are nearly half a million UK households with debt problems, according to the Consumer Credit Counselling Service and this figure is bound to increase if interest rates rise.

George Osborne will be presenting the budget on Wednesday and everyone is currently wondering what measures he’ll introduce to help the economy and the housing market get back to normal after the recession.

New research from unbiased.co.uk shows that nearly one in four homeowners think buying a house was the most traumatic experience of their life.

There’s a glimmer of hope for first time buyers after five local councils announced they were pioneering a scheme to top up deposits for people who can’t afford hefty deposits.

The majority of MPs feel that first time buyers should receive more help, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Genworth Financial.