HSBC plans to curb sales of low-deposit mortgages

Lender will try to reduce unexpectedly high demand in a blow to first-time buyers

HSBC, one of the last banks to offer low-deposit “90%” mortgages, is expected to restrict sales within days, in a move likely to leave first-time buyers struggling to find a loan.

The bank’s 400 mortgage advisers are currently flooded with applications from buyers, with customers forced to wait as long as three to four weeks to be interviewed by the bank. Meanwhile, the bank is opening a daily window of as little as half an hour in the morning for brokers to apply for loans before the daily allocation of money runs out.

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Country diary: buzzed by a tiny caped crusader

Crook, County Durham: Some hoverflies are tricky to identify, but this wasp mimic should be easy for Batman fans

Instinctively, I shied away from the buzzing near my ear, thinking it was a wasp. No, just a harmless hoverfly, a blur of wings and a body fringed with golden hairs, perfectly stationary, as if dangling by an invisible thread in the afternoon sunshine.

Hoverfly flight is a wondrous thing, made possible by halteres: flexible, vibrating, club-shaped rods under each wing. They act like stabilising gyroscopes, constantly feeding back information to the insect about its position, allowing instant, precise flight adjustments. The slightest warping of a wing translates into darting, directional flight. And that’s what happened as I watched, listening to its invisible, barely audible airwaves, spreading like ripples in a puddle from this aerial diadem.

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Country diary: buzzed by a tiny caped crusader

Crook, County Durham: Some hoverflies are tricky to identify, but this wasp mimic should be easy for Batman fans

Instinctively, I shied away from the buzzing near my ear, thinking it was a wasp. No, just a harmless hoverfly, a blur of wings and a body fringed with golden hairs, perfectly stationary, as if dangling by an invisible thread in the afternoon sunshine.

Hoverfly flight is a wondrous thing, made possible by halteres: flexible, vibrating, club-shaped rods under each wing. They act like stabilising gyroscopes, constantly feeding back information to the insect about its position, allowing instant, precise flight adjustments. The slightest warping of a wing translates into darting, directional flight. And that’s what happened as I watched, listening to its invisible, barely audible airwaves, spreading like ripples in a puddle from this aerial diadem.

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Getting to know… Bury St Edmunds

Read our guide.

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Explore the UK’s most expensive villages

Take a look

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Oscar Wilde’s former home is now for sale

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UK mortgage demand nears pre-Covid level amid stamp duty cut

Bank of England figures show consumer borrowing up in July as coronavirus lockdown eased

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Mortgage demand increased sharply and consumer borrowing rose for the first time in five months as the UK emerged from its Covid-19 lockdown in July, the Bank of England has said.

The latest Threadneedle Street data showed the number of new home loan approvals jumped from 39,900 in June to 66,300 in July.

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