Property developers offering cash and other perks in an attempt to attract homebuyers will have to give mortgage lenders full details of their 'give-away' deals as part of an antifraud initiative launched yesterday.
It follows a sharp increase in organised mortgage fraud over the past year as house prices have slid by an estimated 10.5 per cent and the credit crunch has dried up traditional sources of credit. One of the tactics used by fraudsters is to overinflate the value of the property that they are buying to obtain more finance than a home is worth. Developers’ incentives can distort the value of a property.
The antifraud initiative is backed by the Council of Mortgage Lenders and the RICS.
Financial times, The Times, Daily Telegraph
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