We are pleased to see a date finally set for the UK to hold a referendum on its membership of the European Union.

The vote will take place on June 23 and will have profound implications for the British economy and your own personal finances and mortgages. While we take no side on the crucial question, it is important to see the issue resolved quickly for mortgage holders.

From March 21st, borrowers overseas buying UK property will have new rights to change their loan if there are major foreign currency fluctuations. In essence this gives customers the opportunity to switch their loan to/from Sterling if exchange rates fluctuate more than 20 per cent.

We note Skipton Building Society has become the latest lender to stop lending in foreign currencies.

The bank’s policy applies from October 1 and follows moves by Nationwide and Lloyds Banking Group and could prove devastating for expats earning their wages in foreign currencies.

We note the trend of lenders reducing the number of interest-only mortgage loans they have on their books.

In 2012 lenders had 2.5 million mortgages that were interest-only but that figure dropped by 25 per cent by the end of 2014 to under 2 million.

We are pleased to see the return of flexibility to mortgages after years of rigid processes after the financial crash.

Since April last year, lenders have been dealing with the fallout from the biggest piece of mortgage regulation ever introduced in this country.

We note with interest that the Bank of England openly considering whether it should cut interest rates even further than 0.5%.

For years the speculation has been one way on when the Bank will eventually return rates to “normal” levels and increase from the rock bottom.

We understand the difficulties in working in the military, often overseas and then trying to get a mortgage back home.

The fact is that many lenders processes are not set up to deal with armed forces living in many different places and abroad.

We are pleased to see such strong growth in the UK buy-to-let market in recent years, which is great news for landlords.

Many small landlords have seen strong rental income with fewer so-called void months – when the house lays empty without a tenant.

With the UK property market remaining robust it is good to see so many expats looking to invest in the property market.

House price growth has been steady in the south-east and London while growing stronger in the rest of the country too.

The tightening criterion for mortgage lenders following the publication of 2012’s Mortgage Market Review has certainly hit some applicants hard.

In particular, these changes have affected the availability of mortgages for the self-employed and older borrowers.