Saturday July 8, 2006
The Guardian
（1）Growing numbers of first-time buyers desperate to get on the housing ladder but struggling to afford sky-high house prices are being encouraged to tie themselves into mortgages lasting 35, 40 or even 45 years.
With today's buyers requiring ever-larger home loans, some banks and building societies have come up with a clever trick for bringing the dream of home ownership within their r________①: increasing the term of the loan in order to reduce the monthly payments.
（2）But it's a trick with a nasty catch. While your monthly outlay will be lower, by the time the deal comes to an end you'll have paid far more - perhaps an extra £150,000 - than if you had a standard 25-year mortgage.
Robert McLean, 36, recently signed up for a mortgage with Northern Rock which he is being allowed to pay back over 35 years... by which point he will be 71. He recently bought a two-bedroom house with his wife, and was offered a five-year fixed-rate deal with an initial rate of 6.2%. To o_________② this high interest rate the bank recommended its Together mortgage, which allows the couple to borrow more than most high street lenders allow and to stretch the term of the loan.
Mr McLean (not his real name) does not have a p_________③ job but works on contract in the public sector. Despite this, he says the bank allowed him and his partner to borrow more than four times their joint earnings.
（A）________________________________________________.（至于未来，这对夫妻希望他们的财务状况在今后几年内有个大的改观，帮助他们在退休前还清这笔按揭贷款。）
They are not the only ones who are being offered the option of going long on their borrowing. If the trend for extending people's mortgage terms accelerates, it could mean we end up w________④ goodbye to the traditional 25-year loan. Already in the United States, most major banks now offer 40-year mortgages.
（3）It all has frightening echoes of the Japanese property bubble of a few years back, when absurdly high property prices led to the development of 100-year mortgages, which were designed to be paid off by the borrower's children and grandchildren.
On the f________⑤ of it, the maths of mortgage stretching looks pretty good. If you signed up for a £200,000 home loan to be paid back over 25 years, you would pay £1,140 a month in the first two years and £1,329 a month for the remainder of the term, assuming a two-year tracker rate of 4.79% which then converts into a 6.5% standard rate.
That monthly repayment after two years falls to £1,157 - a saving of £172 a month or more than £2,000 a year - if you increase the term to 40 years. For those with t_______⑥ finances, that £172 a month saving could be the difference between getting on the property ladder and being forced to continue renting.
But those lower payments come at a price. After 25 years, you would have handed over a total of £394,241 in mortgage payments, based on the above example. But with a 40-year term, the total amount repaid soars to £549,931.
Stretching the life of a loan over several decades means people could be storing up serious problems for the future. （4）If during the intervening years they have not taken action, such as shortening the mortgage term or making overpayments in order to reduce what they owe, they could end up still paying off their mortgage years after they have retired, out of whatever meaGRE pension income they are living on.
Northern Rock isn't the only lender willing to let people borrow over a longer period of time. Cheltenham & Gloucester will let homebuyers repay their mortgage over a period of up to 35 years, while the Halifax, HSBC, Coventry building society and Ulster Bank are among those that will go up to 40 years. Intriguingly, the Coventry will allow people to have a mortgage that lasts until they are 85 years old.
Last month, Bradford & Bingley trumped them all with a deal that boasts a maximum term of 45 years.（5） However, this is a mortgage aimed at young professional first-time buyers training to be solicitors, accountants and the like, whose incomes are highly likely to increase substantially over the coming years.
Brian Murphy at independent home loans broker Mortgage Advice Bureau is one of those concerned about the current trend. "Stretching a mortgage term to lower the payments is a risky business," he says. "We always advise clients to keep repayments to as short a term as possible, to enable them to free up money for pre-retirement investments."
Mr Murphy says borrowers probably don't set out with the intention of seeking a mortgage that will last for 30 or 40 years, but when they look at the cold hard economics of how much it is going to cost them, some will decide the only way they can afford the property they want is to go for a longer term.
Someone aged 36 now who takes out a 35-year home loan will almost certainly not keep that mortgage until they are 71 - they will probably remortgage and move house. "As soon as you can afford to pay more, you should shorten the term or make overpayments," says Ray Boulger at fellow broker John Charcol.
We asked Northern Rock about Mr McLean's case. A spokeswoman says 35 years is the maximum mortgage term that it offers, adding: "It is unusual for someone to take out a mortgage for that length of time." However, she says it is an o________⑦ for people who want to keep their payments very low.
（B）___________________________________________（只要借款人已经做好安排，打算在退休后继续还款，银行就会放贷。）The spokeswoman adds that the typical lifespan of a mortgage product is between three and five years.
（6）Some might say that if house prices continue to rise in excess of earnings, the only way repayments can remain affordable is by increasing the term of the loan. But others will say this is a ticking timebomb, reminiscent of the tactics used by those loan consolidation companies that offer people the chance to bring all their debts together into "one easy payment" that is substantially less than their current monthly payments - but which do this by spreading them over a much longer period, meaning more interest is paid.
试一试：（可做全部，也可选做部分）
1．根据首字母提示和译文，填入适当单词：
①bringing the dream of home ownership within their r________（让拥有住房的梦想成真）（名词）
②To o_________ this high interest rate（为了抵消高利率的影响）（动词）
③does not have a p_________ job（没有一份永久的工作）（形容词）
④we end up w________ goodbye to the traditional 25-year loan（我们最终可能就要和传统的25年期贷款说再见了）（动名词）
⑤On the f________ of it, the maths of mortgage stretching looks pretty good.（从表面上看，延长按揭贷款的算盘似乎还不错）（名词）
⑥For those with t_______ finances（对于财政状况紧张的人来说）（形容词）
⑦it is an o________ for people who want to keep their payments very low（对于那些想把月供压得很低的人来说，这也是一个选择。）（名词）
参考答案： ①reach ②offset ③permanent ④waving ⑤face ⑥tight
2．翻译划线部分英文：（全文译文请参阅当日报纸）
参考答案：
（1）越来越多急于步入有房一族但无法负担高额房款的第一次购房者在银行的怂恿下，背负上长达35年、40年甚至45年的按揭贷款。（“ladder”在此是指“等级或水平”）
（2）不过，这个计策有一个蹊跷之处。（“nasty”是指“令人厌烦的或棘手的”，“catch”是指“陷阱，欺诈”，比如“there may be a catch.”意为“可能有诈。”）
（3）所有这些都让人惊恐地想起几年前日本的房地产泡沫，那时的高房价导致长达100年的抵押贷款出现。这种荒唐的贷款意思是要让借款人的子孙来还清。
（4）如果在此期间贷款人不采取行动（如缩短还贷期限或者提前还款）的话，他们可能会面临退休若干年后还在拿那些少得可怜、却又赖以生存的退休金来还贷的窘境。（intervene介乎其间；make overpayments in order to reduce what they owe进行超额还款以减少欠款数额，即提前还（一部分）贷款；meaGRE 亦作meager不足的）
（5）不过，这种按揭贷款面向的是年轻的初次购房者，他们都是专业人士，经过培养，将来会做律师、会计等收入可能在未来若干年里大幅增长的职业。
（6）一些人也许会说如果房屋价格继续上涨超过收入的话，那么唯一负担得起的还款方法就是延长贷款期限。
3．根据译文，写出句子：
原文表达： （A）As for the future, the couple hope their finances will improve dramatically over the next few years, enabling them to pay off the mortgage before they retire.
（B）Provided borrowers have arrangements in place to continue making repayments after they retire, the bank（Northern Rock） will lend to them.
