Weekly Mortgage Market Update 3

Coreco have been in the press again last week talking about everything from the Bank of Mum and Dad, Mortgages and Interest Rates to Roboadvice!

In the Financial Times we mentioned that “The banks and building societies need to lend. This means they will continue to do more to try and attract customers to them. You might see lenders even tweaking things down a little further to entice people in. Tesco Bank, for instance, this month announced a five-year fixed rate mortgage at 1.68 per cent for borrowers with a 40 per cent deposit, carrying a fee of £995”.

Also in the FT we mentioned that the Bank of Mum & Dad are still going strong in London, “There does still seem to be quite a lot of cash around and we see a lot of parents or grandparents making higher deposit gifts just to help children get a cheaper rate and not to be so highly geared. In London, we’re seeing gifts of £100,000.”

Meanwhile, in the benign interest rate environment we have grown used to, the results of the latest Bank of England MPC meeting came as a bit of a surprise to many with a 5 : 3 vote to keep interest rates unchanged yet again.

The fact that Ian McCafferty and Michael Saunders joined Kristin Forbes in now advocating an earlier than expected rates rise, suggests that inflationary pressures may be more pronounced than initially thought.

This brings us closer to a potential increase and, whilst we have had similar situations in the past that have not come to pass, it seems we need to get the message out to borrowers and prospective borrowers to review their situation whilst rates are still low, especially for those looking for longer term security.

Rate wise, borrowers are now able to get 2-year variable tracker rates from 0.98% (3.51% APRC), 2 year fixed rates at 1.03% (3.37% APRC) and a 5-year fix from a mere 1.68% (3.02% APRC).

Buy to Let rates are now available from just 1.39% (4.23% APRC).

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