Money Box Live/Phone In - Monday 26 February 2001

THIS TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS THE BBC CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY.

Tape Transcript by JANE TEMPLE

MONEY BOX LIVE

Presenter: Paul Lewis

Guests Ray Boulger, Jeremy Leaf, Andrew Reeves

TRANSMISSION 26th FEB 2001 1500-1530 RADIO 4

ANNOUNCER : Before that it's MONEY BOX LIVE with Paul Lewis.

LEWIS Hello and today we answer your questions on housing, or at least the financial aspects of it. Those of you who listen to MONEY BOX on Saturday will have heard the mortgage war of words between the bosses of Halifax and Nationwide as they both slashed their mortgage rates will other lenders follows? - and if so is re-mortgaging still a way to save thousands of pounds? If you're thinking of buying or selling is now the time to jump, although official figures show as prices rising by 10% in 2000 they actually fell slightly from the autumn to the winter - where will they go in 2001? And with the stock market in the doldrums the FTSE index of shares in our biggest 100 companies still below 6000 as we speak - is investing in property the new way to make a reasonable return? What should you buy? - where? - what are the risks? And what returns can you expect? Or perhaps you've already paid for your home and you want to use the capital to boost your income in later life. How can you do that safely and what returns can you expect? Whatever your question call Money Box live - 08700 100 444 My panel of housing experts if poised to answer your questions and they are Ray Boulgar from mortgage brokers Charcol, an encyclopaedia of knowledge about the mortgage market, Jeremy Leaf from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors who can talk to us about the housing market and about prices, and Andrew Reeves, the letting agent and an expert in buying to let for people who want to invest in the housing market. The first question is from Roxanne in Cambridge. Roxanne your question?

ROXANNE Yeah hello. I'm a first time buyer and my question really related to two things - one is that is it the right time to buy particularly because I've just started working and so the amount I could borrow would probably not be very much and I'm on an academic salary? - and second of all it would also mean - I think the only way I could buy something decent is to take - take my money out of my peps and Isas for instance - which would mean I'd take out - I'd put everything in one basket so to speak and the second thing is that my time horizon is only about two to three years because I'll probably leave this area after that and probably go abroad.

LEWIS Well I think that covers just about the whole programme there Roxanne - so thank you for your question. Let me start with Jeremy Leaf - can we say it's a good time to buy into the property market?

LEAF Well of course it's always difficult to say when is the right time - and it depends on the type of property and where - where one's looking, where Roxanne's looking and what she wants, but it certainly seems to be a little bit more attractive than it has been for sometime. The market again talking generally is much more in balance than say it was a few months ago.

LEWIS You mean buyers and sellers are more.

LEAF Buyers and sellers

LEWIS equally balanced

LEAF In terms of reasonable amount of property coming in, but that can vary between areas. The best advice really is to look at the areas which - which suit Roxanne more than any - than any and just do the leg work really and see -see what - what suits her and if it's available.

LEWIS Roxanne I believe you're in Cambridge?

ROXANNE Right that's right.

LEWIS What's the market like there?

ROXANNE It seems - well it seems things sell very quickly and- and I mean the most I could probably buy is a one bedroom flat in Cambridge.

LEAF Well they seem particularly attractive to a lot of people - not just for buying but for occupation but also for investment, so you may find - find a little bit of competition there.

LEWIS Yes I suppose in a university town particularly - Andrew Reeves id I could turn to you - people do want that kind of - of sort of low cost, quick move on property - one bedroom flat - you go there - you have an academic period and then you move on?

REEVES Yes that's true. We do know that Cambridge has tremendous demand from students and people perhaps in the academic field and I believe that although I don't come from that area I believe that there is a slight shortage of available land for new developments and so it could be a very good area in which to -to invest in a property if only for your own occupation for the time being Roxanne.

LEWIS And Ray Boulger - a mortgage for somebody in Roxanne's position - how easy would that be to arrange?

BOULGER Well the main issue may be Roxanne that you said you'd just started work. If you're on a probationary period that is an issue with some lenders but and if you've only just started work and you've only been there a month or so could be an issue. I don't see any particular problem in you cashing in your Peps and Isas. I think the way you should look at those is you've been saving money for a purpose and if that purpose is to buy a house that's fine. The main concern I would have would be whether it's actually worth buying somewhere for two or three years because you're going to have expenses on the purchase and the sale, but on balance bearing in mind how strong the market is probably worth considering.

LEWIS And finally Andrew Reeves, if Roxanne decided she didn't want to buy - she wanted to rent that - some people just see that as a waste of money - you're just throwing your money away?

REEVES Yes, but there are a lot of people who are choosing not to put down roots in a particular area perhaps for the job reasons perhaps private and personal, social relationships etc, and so renting is a viable option for the shorter term but going back to Roxanne's first stated intention which is to buy I can confirm that if she were to buy a one bedroom flat it would be an excellent rental prospect in a few years time because that is one category of property where the return is usually better per capita than a larger property.

LEWIS So it maybe Roxanne that you could buy it now and when you move out don't sell it and have all those expenses but rent it out and add being a landlord to your - to your c.v - if you fancy that?

ROXANNE I actually did think of it in the long term as an investment because I mean I would buy it only for to live in for two, three years and then move on - but keep it on I thought yeah.

LEWIS Okay so some advice for you there anyway Roxanne to think about. Let's move on to David who's in Blackpool - David, your question?

DAVID Ah yes - I've currently an endowment mortgage with 12 years to run to completion and I'm paying around about the standard base rate and I'm thinking of re-mortgaging and would like your advice on the best options available?

LEWIS Okay well I think we've got the best people to talk to you about that. Just let me ask you though David - you say you're paying the base rate - what rate of interest are you actually paying?

DAVID I think it's with the Abbey National - it's round about 7% at the moment.

LEWIS Right - Ray Boulger what is your advice to David?

BOULGER Well if it's with Abbey it's probably going to 7.49% and Abbey so far haven't responded to what happened last week with Halifax and Nationwide and I think it's gonna be particularly interesting to see what Abbey do cos I think they'll say something. What I'd suggest you do is look around to re-mortgage cos Abbey probably won't give you a cracking deal at this stage. The things you need to look are the cost of switching over- a number of lenders will pay those costs which essentially will be the valuation fees, legal fees and possibly an arrangement fee. As your term is quite short but it's - the mortgage is on an endowment basis it actually doesn't matter whether you have daily or annual interest, but if you're on repayment for the benefit of other listeners you certainly should be looking for daily interest.

LEWIS This means they work out the interest every day so if you pay a bit extra off you - what you owe them goes down immediately?

BOULGER That's right and with a repayment mortgage of course you're paying a bit extra off every month and key thing you need to look at is do you want to go for a fixed cat or track or discount rate ? - decide that first - there's lots of good deals around which will give you a rate of about 5% - so you can shave an awful lot off what you're currently paying.

LEWIS Before we come on to that I'd just like to go into that in a bit more detail Ray - but before we do that you said these costs of actually doing a re-mortgage - legal costs - you have to get a solicitor involved do you?

BOULGER You do indeed - that's a requirement the lender will insist on that and typically you're looking at about £300 minimum for legal costs.

LEWIS You have to get a valuation because obviously the lender has to know what the property's worth. I understand that and then you said an arrangement fee - what's that?

BOULGER Yeah, most lenders on their fixed and capped rate mortgages and sometimes on the discount mortgages will charge an arrangement fee which typically is around £300, but that does vary a lot from deal to deal.

LEWIS That's a bit like if you go into the supermarket and they charge you to look at the carrots isn't it before you buy them - I mean it seems a bit of a cheek to me?

BOULGER Well you're not being charged to look at it - you're being charged it to actually take the deal and of course the lender's argument which is quite fair is that by charging an arrangement fee they can actually charge you a lower rate, so you need to look at all the costs and all the - the up front costs and the monthly costs.

LEWIS And forgive me Ray you've missed out one - that if somebody goes to Charcol or another mortgage broker there could be a broker's fee as well?

BOULGER Indeed - if they - if they apply through Charcol Online they will not pay a broker fee but if they speak to an advisor then there will be a broker fee in most cases - that's correct.

LEWIS Can you avoid any of this by going to your existing lender and saying well look I can get this great deal elsewhere - can you match it?

BOULGER It's always worth doing that - there are some lenders who will allow existing customers to take any of their new business rates - for example of the top five both C & G and Woolwich will do that and Northern Rock announced last week they would do it. Abbey will not normally do that so talk to them but the chances are you'll have to move.

LEWIS And David have you any idea what sort of deal you want - do you want fixed, capped, do you understand those terms?

DAVID No it would be helpful if you could at least know what they mean?

LEWIS Okay - shall we go through them very quickly. I mean the basic - what Alistair Campbell might call the bog standard mortgage is that you pay about 7.5% and as the bank rate goes up and down that goes up and down - but that is the worst deal really isn't it?

BOULGER That's right. A fixed rate simply means that for whatever period you choose the fixed rate you know exactly what you're going pay so it means you can budget and that gives you peace of mind. A capped rate means that that's the maximum rate you will pay within the capped rate period - can't pay more, you could pay less, although most capped rate deals today are at a level that's low enough to mean they won't go down.

LEWIS Yeah so as the base rate goes down you could see it fall but you probably won't - but at least you know it can't go above a certain rate?

BOULGER Absolutely. And a discount simply gives you a discount of a specified amount for a certain period of time - normally off the lender's standard variable rate but sometimes off bank base rates.

LEWIS Yes - and we have had e-mails Ray - I don't want to let you monopolise things but we have had e-mails from people confused about the deals that Halifax and Nationwide were offering last week. They are a bit different and they're not really quite as good as they seem?

BOULGER What Nationwide are saying is that they've got one new standard rate for everybody who is not on a discount but they are still charging people interest calculated annually and they are not offering any new business incentives except for this fixed rate. Halifax on the other hand are still offering new business incentives to attract new people and they are allowing people to switch over to their new daily interest - lower SVR, but you have to physically sign a piece of paper to get that whereas Nationwide don't insist you do that.

LEWIS Okay well thanks for those three thumbnail sketches around - around the area - David, I hope that helps you. It's a lot to take in and I think you know get advice and think of your options and also don't extend that term beyond 12 years probably because that can be a trap when you re-mortgage. Let's move on now to Peter who's ringing us from Norwich - Peter:

PETER Hello. We've got two houses in Norwich - one of which we have rented for a long time but it's unoccupied at the moment because it's under repair. The other one we live in - it's a small 4 bedroom house within 10 minutes of the university so it's a good area for letting. And we've been looking for a long time for a suitable house to move into - a slightly larger house. And we've found one which is quite a good price that we really like. Now, the trouble is that our current house is we think under valued by the market at the moment. In fact they mark it - valuing our current house at no more than the price we paid for it 12 years ago.

LEWIS obviously a bit disappointing - so do you want to use the properties you own - let them out and then use that money to buy a bigger home - is that your idea?

PETER That's the idea yes

LEWIS Okay well let me ask Andrew Reeves - is that a feasible option?

REEVES In normal circumstances it ought to be - it's possible to raise up to in extreme 85% of the value - the current value of a property that is then proposed to be let so Peter if you were to do this to both properties you could probably raise quite a sizeable sum. My only cautionary remark there is to be sure not to over extend yourself with the borrowings because you will probably want to ensure that the net rent after certain running expenses as a landlord will be sufficient to meet your monthly interest payments, so it's worth getting the calculator out and running a few sums.

LEWIS Yes you have to remember don't you that the mortgage or mortgages that you have have to be paid off even if the house is not let for a period of time - you have what I think you call voids in the industry - and that can really eat into the money that you've got and you suddenly have to support the property out of your own income?

REEVES Exactly right yes. Although the tenant is there to - to pay the month when in resident - to pay the rent when in residence obviously there could be a vacant period between tenancies and it's important that you prepare the property to meet the most likely demand in the local area from tenants - and this is where your local letting agent can give you some very sound advice.

LEWIS We'll come back on the more general points in a minute Andrew about buying to let - about returns and things like that - but Jeremy let me just ask you - Norwich what kind of housing market is there? - I mean Peter seems to say his house hasn't gone up in value for 12 years?

LEAF Well obviously it depends on which part is it - and our reports are saying - showing that the market is quite strong and also fairly balanced there, but quite a lot of activity recently but I would make the point as well when you're consulting perhaps a letting agent is to check are they the type of properties that are getting the best type - best sort of return? It maybe more economic to look as we said for Roxanne for a one bedroom flat - that could give a better - better rate of return than maybe the houses that he's got at the moment - maybe better selling and investing elsewhere.

LEWIS Buying something else - particularly as it is a university town as well where you've got this through put of people that want - want short term lets. And Andrew in general terms people who are interested in investing in property - what are the kind of returns they can look at?

REEVES Well these vary across the country of course because rent levels compared to house prices do vary from one area to another. But there's also the prospect of capital growth of course and this is what is attracting a lot of investors into the buy to let market. So it's definitely worth finding out what sort of rent could be achieved on both of your properties Peter and to perhaps choose which of those two properties would be a better letting prospect for you. I am curious to know why your property hasn't increased in value over 12 years that does seem rather strange - that wouldn't be a good recipe for buying a property in your area for the next 12 years if you can 't expect any further growth. But generally it's a balance between rental returns and prospects for capital growth.

LEWIS Peter does that help you?

PETER Yes I mean the question I had was partly to do with tax - if I were to re-mortgage this property - is there a problem with off setting the mortgage interest against the - the income from the letting?

LEWIS No - that's quite straightforward isn't it Ray Boulger?

BOULGER The key thing is if you're gonna do that you need to be able to identify that the money you're using for the buy to let property has been used to buy that buy to let property - now in this case if you're looking at increasing your mortgage the maximum tax relief you'll be able to get is based on the initial purchase price of that property so if for example you paid £50,000 for the property and you have a mortgage on it of £25,000 you would not be able to get tax relief on it of more than £50,000 even if it's now worth £100,000.

LEWIS Okay so some complexities there but well worth consulting a letting agent, sorting these things out Peter and seeing what the best way forward is. We must move on - we've had a lot of calls on different subjects and Sarah from Dunster has a very different topic - Sarah:

SARAH Hello there. Well I would like your advice on trying to free up some of the capital in my own home. I own my own property and I would just like to have something from that - is there any way I can do this?

LEWIS We're going to have to ask you that very embarrassing question first Sarah - roughly how old you are?

SARAH Yes I'm 56.

LEWIS She's 56. Ray Boulger - 56 year old lady wants to release some equity?

BOULGER You're still working I presume are you Sarah?

SARAH Yes but at the moment I'm only working part time or on a temporary basis so not full time.

BOULGER Okay and do you have much equity in the property?

SARAH Approximately 140

BOULGER Well it would be feasible to raise some money on the basis of the amount of equity you've got in the property but you would have to pay the .interest on that. The equity release mortgages which you're asking about are only available to people who've achieved the age of 60 and at that stage you can take out a mortgage where all of the interest is rolled up and therefore you can either use the capital as a lump sum or you can actually take a monthly draw down. At your age the thing you'd have to do the thing you'd have to do would be to take out a mortgage that you were confident you could pay back and then perhaps at age 60 reassess.

LEWIS There are - these have got a bit of bad press though haven't they these equity release mortgages - people have got into terrible trouble- is there still a danger of that?

BOULGER The mortgages that were sold on that basis in the l980s got a very bad press and that was because of the type of mortgage that was sold whereby you borrowed a lump sum and invested it in the stock market. You then have the double whammy of the stock market collapsing and property prices falling. Today's products reflect those concerns and they have a no negative equity guarantee which means that you can't be required to pay back more than the amount of the debt and so those issues have been addressed so there are some sensible products around today particularly one from Northern Rock.

LEWIS Sarah can I ask you - you want to do this - how much - are you willing to give up a big chunk of the value of your property and what kind of income would you hope for?

SARAH Well this is where I would like some advice - I wasn't quite sure. I'd like to give up quite a large amount of the value of the property - but I wasn't sure what sort of income I could expect as a result of that.

LEWIS Briefly Ray can we do a thumbnail - how much she'd give up - what she'd get back at 56?

BOULGER Well at 56 as I say you can't actually take a mortgage whereby you don't pay anything back at all so the maximum you'd be able to borrow would depend on your income. You could self certify your income and you could borrow up to 60 or 85% of the property but it sounds like that wouldn't be sensible so without knowing more details it's difficult to be too precise.

LEWIS I think you may have to wait - Ray kindly put it achieved 60 we'll all be achieving 60 I'm sure.

BOULGER I mean at aged 60 you can take 20% of the value of the property out as a lump sum.

LEWIS But you could get advice and there will be a list of people you can get advice on equity release on our website and with our helpline at the end of the programme I'll give you the details of that. Let's talk now to Derek from Edinburgh - Derek your question:

DEREK Hello. I have a £75,000 endowment mortgage with the Northern Rock on fixed rate. The terms of that fixed rate expire next year and I'm free to get other sort of arrangements so I'm half pondering about some of these Australian mortgages in particularly I've been told there might be a shortfall in my endowments to repay of about £6,000 so I might want to do some repayment as well as the just carrying on with the endowments?

LEWIS And by an Australian mortgage you've been looking at the adverts haven't you - you mean these flexible mortgages that you can pay off as and when or not if you want to?

DEREK Yeah as and when I think it's sort of weekly payments and I think the interest is at daily - interest payments as well.

LEWIS Okay Ray Boulger I'm gonna have to come to you again I think and ask you to explain the complexities of these flexible friends?

BOULGER Okay - Derek are you simply looking to overpay or do you want the other facilities that a flexible mortgage offers - i.e.. the ability to take payment holidays and re-borrow?

DEREK I'm not worried about payment holidays - just to clear it as quick as I can and over pay.

BOULGER Right well if you all want to do is overpay whilst you can do that with a flexible mortgage you can do it with lots of other mortgages that will actually give you a better interest rate and either by luck or judgement by being with Northern Rock you actually will be in a good position because Northern Rock announced on Thursday in response to Halifax and Nationwide that they're going to make all their new business rates available to existing customers so you may well be able to switch to a deal with them when you come off this fixed rate and they do have some penalty free fixed rates that you could switch into which would give you another fixed rate if that's what you want and allow you to overpay with daily interest. So I'd suggest in the first instance you - you talk to Northern Rock. In general flexible mortgages one does need to be very careful about the advertising. Some of the advertising is very mis-leading - in particularly one that Virgin have been running at the end of last week in response to Halifax and Nationwide - I think is so bad it ought to be referred to the advertising standards authority - they talk about many big names admitting they've been ripping customers off - well we've only had two or three lenders actually make an announcement - it's not many. They also say that their interest rate is 6.95% and I think this is the biggest problem. Their interest rate varies between 6.85 and 76.45% - and that's not mentioned anywhere in the advert.

LEWIS Ray - I understand your concerns about that advert Ray but leaving aside the specifics of that advert - there are dangers with these very flexible - so called current account mortgages aren't there?

BOULGER Well the danger is for somebody who's not sufficiently financially sophisticated because they give you the ability to reborrow money very cheaply on your mortgage and clearly that can for some people be a temptation. For the financially sophisticated they can be a very attractive tool but in the wrong hands they can be dangerous.

LEWIS Yes like everything else I think in finance - take care. Well thanks for that Ray and thanks for your question Derek. Let's move on now to Joyce who's ringing us from Nettlebed?

JOYCE Yes hello

LEWIS Hello Joyce, your question?

JOYCE Well I'm 75. I have two homes - one in Spain. I'd like to go and live there. I have some capital in my present house of about £80 - 90,000 which I'd somehow like to leave as an investment for my son. And I'm wondering whether it's better to sell this house and realise my capital and buy afresh or what are the alternatives - is buying to let a better investment than say going into financial investment?

LEWIS Well indeed that's at the heart of the debate isn't it - with the FTSE index down even further as we've been speaking I think. Andrew Reeves is you want - if you've got this kind of property it may not be the best sort of let out may it?

REEVES No that's right . I have to admit I'm struggling to remember where Nettlebed is - it sounds delightfully rural

LEWIS I'm sure Joyce will tell us.

JOYCE Well it's between Henley on Thames and Wallingford - near Oxford.

REEVES Okay. My point is whether it's ¿.thank you whether it's in a good lettings location and not just within - on the outskirts of a town but perhaps within reach of communications, stations, supermarkets are usual things that tenants are going to look for. I think you have two options here Joyce. Firstly you could get some local opinions on the rental value of the property and to compare that with the - the price that you've suggested the value that the property has at the moment and then if you were to compare re-investing your funds having sold the house perhaps in the centre of town where there would be a greater demand and where you could buy perhaps a smaller property which would be more suited to the rental market - that would be my recipe for maximising your rental return.

LEWIS So it's a bit too easy just to keep the house and let it out because it may not be suitable - it may not be in the right place - the right kind of property,so it look Joyce as if you're going to enter into slightly more of a business deal to sort this out. Jeremy Leaf how do you see this one?

LEAF Well it also depends on how Joyce sees the term - the length of term - is it a short term question or is it a longer term? - how she sees it. If it's just a couple of years or a year or so then .it may not be worth going through -through that trouble of having to buy and re-sell. It just depends on the term but as Andrew said you've gotta be very very focused when you come to making these sorts of decisions. It's very comfortable to keep what you've got but it may be better to move on to something else.

LEWIS And Joyce you didn't want to just pass it over to your son and give him all the problems now rather than waiting to leave it to him?

JOYCE Well there's still a mortgage on the house and he suggested he takes over that mortgage - he doesn't want to live in the house himself although it's a very lettable property - it's 3 bedrooms - it's convenient - it has all the advantages. I can't see that I'd find anything more lettable in this area.

LEWIS So I think the answer is go to a local agent, get their advice and if they say it's a good deal then go ahead with it and enjoy your time in Spain. Let's talk now to Katy who's ringing from Southampton - Katy:

KATY Hello. I'm about to buy a flat in Southampton and I've been recommended an Isa mortgage - the advantages have all been explained to me - there are some disadvantages I believe - my mother mentioned one as a waste of my tax free savings allowance. That's her concern.

LEWIS Yes always listen to your mum on these occasions - I think that's our general advice. Ray Boulger an Isa mortgage -just explain how it would work?

BOULGER Paul, one thing that concerns me with what Katy said was that the advantages have been explained to her but it was left to her mother to explain the disadvantages - is that actually the situation Katy - that the advisor didn't give you the pros and the cons?

KATY Oh the disadvantages were explained to me to a certain degree that I may not be the fund may not be enough to pay off my mortgage after the term but the - the deal was made to sound so attractive that I thought well how could I not do this.

LEWIS I just worry a bit that this is something being sold for - for commission rather than for the benefit of the customer Ray?

BOULGER Well that is a worry in the light of what you've just said although I have to say that the commission on an Isa is actually not that high so one doesn't normally get a problem on this score. I think the big difficulty is that if you take out any type of investment mortgage - be it an endowment mortgage, an Isa mortgage or a pension mortgage you are relying on the investment returns of the fund manager you use to generate sufficient money to pay off your mortgage. Now that may well happen but there's no guarantees and in today's low interest and low inflation environment most people do prefer to go for repayment mortgage where you've got some certainty.

LEWIS Jeremy Leaf how do - how do you find this - do estate agents recommend these kind of mortgages - do they get a cut out of them?

LEAF Well they can do but they should disclose it if they do. That maybe the first port of call, but I think there's so much advice available now as Ray was saying before on line or in estate agents or just going straight to building societies, banks or whatever that certainly there's no shortage of advice - it's just a question of taking the right advice.

LEWIS If you want to sleep at night Katy maybe a repayment mortgage is the safest thing. Anyway some advice and get more before you take that - that step. Edwina's now calling us from Maidenhead - Edwina?

EDWINA Hi. My son's girlfriend disappeared. He pays the mortgage but he can't get her off their joint mortgage as he can't trace her. And she could reappear at any time in the future to claim on the house - how does he get control of it?

LEWIS Mmm - I have a feeling that if mortgages are normally what's called joint and several which means you both have to pay all of it if the other one disappears - Jeremy is that true?

LEAF Yeah that's usually the case

LEWIS Ray?

BOULGER That's absolutely right. I mean I think the situation here requires the intimation of a solicitor because if she can't be traced it's gonna be very difficult to cut - to get anybody off the mortgage deed that person does have to sign and so I would advise contacting a solicitor to try and trace her.

LEWIS Okay well we've been talking about buy to let and buying to let properties - sorry Edwina I hope that answers the question - I think the answer is see a solicitor.

EDWINA Well not effectively cos we tried a solicitor and if you can't trace somebody you can't do anymore about it.

LEWIS So she is stuck Ray?

BOULGER I think that is a big problem yeah - may have to employ a private enquiry agent.

LEWIS Right well I'm sorry Edwina we can't solve that one - it is a problem I know a lot of people have faced. We did talk about buy to let Andrew Reeves and we've had a couple of e-mails now about people wanting to buy to let a houseboat - is that possible?

REEVES Not in my experience although I suspect that one of the many lenders in our market place would be prepared to offer a secured loan which would be - normally used perhaps to - to buy such a thing as a car. We can certainly let a houseboat providing it was in a good location preferably on the Thames near Chelsea embankment.

LEWIS And in good condition and not damp below?

REEVES yes of course - yes rising damp could be a problem here - but perhaps Ray could mention something on the mortgage front?

BOULGER Well not a lot more - I mean a personal loan is an alternative - there are one or two lenders that will specialise in this - but personal loan probably.

LEWIS Okay so not quite so simple for those people who e-mailed us about house boats. That's all we have time for. My thanks to Ray Boulger from mortgage brokers Charcol - to Jeremy Leaf from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and letting agent Andrew Reeves. If you'd like more details of anything raised in the programme you can ring the Action line on 0800 044 044 Calls are free on 0800 044 044 Our website of course as ever : www.bbc.co.uk/moneybox. Our e-mail [e-mail]. I'm back at noon on Saturday with MONEY BOX on Saturday for the top personal finance stories of the week. Vincent Duggleby is back here next Monday afternoon on MONEY BOX LIVE taking calls on student finance.

BACK ANNO That was Paul Lewis and the producer was Jennifer Clarke.