In brief

Nationwide Building Society has revealed it expects house prices to grow by 5 per cent in 2006.

Commenting on the figures, Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide’s group economist, said: “We expect some softening of the market towards the very end of the year, mainly due to affordability, but also reinforced by the surprise increase in interest rates, which can do nothing other than add caution.”

AMI backs ‘option F’

The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) has published its response to the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) and Financial Ombudsman Service’s (FOS) discussion paper on the funding review of the ‘FOS compulsory jurisdiction’. Chris Cummings, AMI director-general, said: “Of the options set out in the paper, we favour Option F – that a fee would only become payable from the sixth and subsequent cases. There would also be an annual fee per firm.”

Thinc Destini launches BTL seminars

Thinc Destini, has launched a series of buy-to-let (BTL) seminars, aimed at helping advisers understand opportunities for their clients within the BTL market. The two-hour seminars will help educate consumers about the opportunities available in the BTL market. Advisers will be invited to bring interested clients to the free seminars.