Some of the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders, including Virgin Money and Skipton Building Society, have stopped offering new home loans in response to the market volatility triggered by the government’s mini-Budget.

Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group, the biggest mortgage lender in the UK, is also withdrawing a range of new home loans, it told brokers.

The pause in new lending comes after yields on UK bonds rose sharply following the tax cuts announced on Friday by chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

“This is the first time we’ve seen a major withdrawal of products and repricing in the mainstream market since the global financial crisis,” said Ray Boulger, an analyst at mortgage broker John Charcol.

“The huge rise in gilt yields means lenders have to reprice mortgages very significantly. I expect by next week there will be very few mortgage deals available with rates under 5 per cent. Any lender who hasn’t

Good morning. It’s CPI day. There is good reason for optimism that inflation will continue to abate, and not just because of gas prices. But as we like to repeat at Unhedged, there is no such thing as high and stable inflation. There will be more surprises, in both directions, before the current episode concludes. Email me: [email protected]

Housing: even worse (so, better?)

The last time Unhedged checked in on the US housing market, back in June, we wrote that “housing remains the one big area of the economy that is not sending mixed signals. It just looks bad.” This is no longer true: the US housing market no longer just looks bad; now it is very bad.

“Bad” is ambiguous in this context, though. Sharp

China Evergrande has pledged to resume construction of all remaining stalled property projects by the end of this month, as the world’s most indebted developer works to pacify a nationwide mortgage boycott.

The developer will resume the construction of 38 remaining projects by the end of September and accelerate 62 restarted projects to “normal level”, according to a company statement released late on Monday that cited its chair, Hui Ka Yan, in a weekly meeting.

Among Evergrande’s 706 pre-sold projects nationwide that need to be completed and delivered to homebuyers, 668 had resumed construction, it said.

“We have to work hard and put our nose to the grindstone to ensure the delivery of projects. Only in this way can we satisfy the homebuyers, resume sales, resume operations, repay all types of debts and get out of the predicament,” Hui said at the meeting.

Evergrande has been at the centre of

My fiancé and I have been toying with the idea of buying a home for a while. He has a flat that he owns and rents out as he is in the armed forces, so is away a lot. I was going to purchase somewhere on my own but his parents have gifted us some money as a wedding present which we would like to add to the budget I have.

As a first-time buyer, I would like to benefit from the stamp duty reduction. Similarly, since his parents are gifting the money, what are his rights towards the property ownership in the event of divorce or my death? Could I add his name to the deeds but keep the mortgage in my name?

Helen Marsh, a partner at law firm Forsters, says this is a complex question. There are two main issues

China Vanke plans to raise up to $784mn in Hong Kong from the spin-off of its property management unit, which is set to test global investor appetite for real estate-related listings after a string of high-profile defaults in the sector this year.

Onewo, a subsidiary of Vanke, said it would raise up to HK$6.2bn ($784mn) from an initial public offering of about 117mn shares priced at a range of HK$47.10 to HK$52.70 each, according to a filing with the Hong Kong exchange.

The decision to list Onewo comes as Chinese authorities step up measures to support the country’s beleaguered property sector, which accounts for about a third of total economic output, as growth in the world’s second-largest economy slows.

Demand for housing in China has crumbled after a series of defaults by developers stoked a crisis of confidence among homebuyers. Last week, state banks cut deposit rates for the first