17 September 2011

Discount to leave your current lender?

The FSA (Financial Services Authority) has published its latest Mortgage Lending Data for the UK covering the second quarter of 2011. The key areas of interest are -
- The proportion of lending for house purchase, which includes buy-to-lets, increased from 54% in Q1 to 59% in Q2,
- Lending to first-time buyers rose from 14% in Q1 to 16% in Q2.
- New lending at fixed rates increased in Q2 to 56%.
- The average rate on new advances rose from 3.65% in Q1 to 3.81% in Q2, which the FSA puts down to the increase in fixed rate lending and a rise in the average fixed rate from 4.24% in Q1 to 4.43% in Q2

Despite the latter, fixed rates are really very competitive in the current climate and well worth a review.

Other figures released this week show that mortgage lending may top £40b which would be £3b more than the last quarterly predicted figures. This is very positive.
However, be aware that we have just seen an increase in the three monthly LIBOR rate (London Interbank Offered Rate) which has increased to 0.90%. This is the rate of interest at which banks offer to lend money to one another in the wholesale money markets in London (effectively a measure of confidence between banks). Reports suggest that the European debt crisis is pushing up LIBOR rates as banks start to eye each other with suspicion again. Watch this space!

Finally, I’ve mentioned this before, but its back on the mortgage lending radar. A few dormant lenders are offering customers a discount (some up to 30%) off their mortgage as an encouragement for them to move away. If your current lender is one of these (and is not actively lending) then it’s worth a call to see if you qualify for a discount. Normally, they will give you a deadline in which to complete the transfer of your mortgage but I’m sure it’s a timescale that AToM could meet assuming you meet all of the new lenders criteria requirements!

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