Mortgage Rates are cheap as chips

Summer already seems so far away and (whisper it quietly) the talk is now all about Christmas and making sure that buyers get in beforehand. Data that was released by the Homeowners Alliance suggested that to achieve this, sellers need to have their property on the market by 20^th October!

Now the Stamp Duty rush is behind us, lenders, valuers, and conveyancers should be able to return to a more normal service, although there are still some who seem to think a normal service is generally a shoddy one.

Luckily, we are on hand to push cases through where they need pushing and our excellent relationships with lenders mean that we can reach the parts of lenders some other brokers simply can’t.

What has helped is the further tweaking of criteria by lenders to match the continuing prevalence of low rates.

Halifax for example, have increased their maximum loan size on 90% LTV products back up to £750,000, as have broker only lender Accord, whilst Skipton Building Society will now lend 80% LTV up to £1,000,000.

Barclays has increased their income multiples to 5.5 times up to 85% LTV borrowing for clients earning £75,000 or a joint income of £100,000.

There have also been a whole plethora of changes by lenders around their self-employed criteria, too many and detailed to list here. Suffice to say that some of these changes are good and some more cautious so for any self-employed or freelance applicants, it is imperative they speak to an experienced broker, as a decline from one lender could be an accept from another.

The recent rate war has engulfed pretty much every section of the market now and the Buy to Let sector is no different. So, with a fanfare of trumpets, we see the first sub-1% rate in this market. The Mortgage Works have a 2-year fixed at 0.99%. It does come with a 2% Arrangement Fee whilst Platform’s 1% rate comes with a £2,495 fee attached.

Any broker will be able to work out if the headline rate plus fee is actually worthwhile for a landlord, but the point is, rates everywhere are cheap as chips.

Have a great week.