Melanie Bien, Director (Head of Media Relations), joined SPF In November 2004. Since then she has established herself as a key media spokesperson on mortgages and the property market, appearing regularly in the quality national press and on television on the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky News, GMTV, Bloomberg and CNN. She is also a regular commentator on Radio Four Money Box, Radio Four Today, Radio Five Live, Radio One and Radio 1Extra.
Before joining SPF, Mel was a journalist for 10 years. Her last journalism job was personal finance editor of the Independent on Sunday.
Mel was voted press spokesperson of the year at the British Mortgage Awards in 2007 and 2008. In 2008, she was the most quoted mortgage broker in the country in the Presswatch Financial annual media survey, an independent monitor for the industry.
04 March 2010
The Bank of England announced today that interest rates will remain unchanged for another month. This means that the base rate has been held at 0.5 per cent for a year.
Read more
23 February 2010
The British Bankers Association (BBA) has confirmed that lending fell sharply in January, with 35,000 new mortgages approved to homebuyers, down from 46,000 in December.
Read more
12 February 2010
The number of people having their homes repossessed rose in 2009 with 46,000 losing the roof over their heads.
Read more
04 February 2010
The Bank of England today held interest rates at 0.5 per cent for another month - but announced that its £200bn quantitative easing programme was being halted.
Read more
02 February 2010
Consumer spending is once again on the rise, with new borrowing on loans, overdrafts and credit cards outstripping the amount being paid back for the first time in six months.
Read more
26 January 2010
Borrowers who fall into arrears on their mortgage will be better protected in future under new measures proposed by the City regulator.
Read more
20 January 2010
There has been much scare mongering surrounding the significant spike in inflation and how this will result in interest rates shooting up much sooner than previously forecast. However, it is important that mortgage borrowers don't panic.
Read more
07 January 2010
As expected, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to hold interest rates at 0.5 per cent for the 11th consecutive month.
Read more
30 December 2009
Mortgage borrowers paid back £4.9 billion between July and September, according to quarterly estimates from the Bank of England.
Read more
09 December 2009
It is a huge shame that the Chancellor missed the opportunity to extend the stamp duty holiday beyond the end of the month on homes costing up to £175,000.
Read more
30 November 2009
Mortgage approvals for house purchases in October rose to 57,345, up by about 1,000 on the previous month and 18 per cent higher than a year ago.
Read more
12 November 2009
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), £2.1bn was advanced to landlords during the three months ending September.
Read more
11 November 2009
The Bank of England's quarterly inflation report today suggested that the UK economy will take some time to recover as it faced a 'prolonged period of balance sheet adjustment'.
Read more
05 November 2009
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee today voted to maintain interest rates at 0.5 per cent for the eighth month in a row. The Committee also voted to continue with its quantitative easing programme, increasing its size by £25 billion to £200bn.
Read more
30 October 2009
The average property price climbed by o.4 per cent to £162,038 last month compared with September, leaving house prices 2 per cent higher than a year ago, according to the latest survey from Nationwide Building Society.
Read more
23 October 2009
The number of mortgages approved for house purchase rose above 42,000 in September, the highest level since January 2008.
Read more
23 October 2009
UK GDP figures show that the British economy remains in recession after contracting again in the third quarter.
Read more
19 October 2009
Self-cert mortgages, which have all but disappeared anyway as a result of the credit crunch, are to be banned if the Financial Services Authority gets its way as it plans to introduce a more ‘intrusive and interventionist’ style of regulation.
Read more
13 October 2009
The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) reported that 52,700 home loans were approved for purchases in August, a 29 per cent rise year on year.
Read more
08 October 2009
The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) today announced that it would hold interest rates at 0.5 per cent for the seventh month in a row.
Read more
02 October 2009
In its latest survey of the housing market, Nationwide building society reported that house prices rose for a fifth month in a row - by a seasonally adjusted 0.9 per cent in September.
Read more
29 September 2009
Total mortgage lending rose to a six-month high of £1bn in August, according to the Bank of England, as economic conditions continue to improve slowly.
Read more
28 September 2009
“An unexpected and continued bounce in the prime central London markets has turned first quarter falls of -4% into growth of +4% in the year to date”, says Yolande Barnes, head of Savills Research department.
Read more
17 September 2009
Lending for home purchase showed material annual growth in July for the first time in over 2 years according to figures out this week from the CML. A total of 56,000 mortgages were taken out in July 2009, up from 47,000 in July last year.
Read more
10 September 2009
The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee today announced that the Base Rate will remain unchanged at 0.5 per cent. This comes as no surprise to Savills Private Finance (SPF) as we continue to believe that interest rates will be held for some time yet before rising again.
Read more
01 September 2009
Land Registry figures revealed that house prices in England and Wales have recorded their biggest rise in five years, with rises in every region.
Read more
25 August 2009
Figures out from the The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) this week pointed to the number of mortgages approved for house purchases advancing 7.4% compared with June and a whopping 77% higher than a year ago.
The BBA added that ‘the ability of potential buyers to pay a deposit and long term sustainability were key issues when banks decided whether to offer a mortgage’
Read more
18 August 2009
Last week, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) report into the housing market provided more upbeats news and potentially another signal that consumer confidence is returning.
Read more
06 August 2009
The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee today announced that it would hold interest rates at 0.5 per cent. There has been no movement in Base Rate since it was reduced in March this year. This has come as no surprise and Savills Private Finance (SPF) believes that rates will be held at 0.5 per cent for some time yet but could then rise fairly rapidly.
Read more
24 July 2009
Recent housing market figures have seen something of a change. The Nationwide has now reported that house prices increased in two of the last three months.
Read more