Even the pundits say to 'act fast' to secure a good rate!

There seems to be a lot of talk from various industry pundits regarding the end of the 'good rates' in the mortgage market.  Even Martin Lewis' money saving programme this week suggested that consumers should be quick and secure a competitive rate.

Remember, that fixed rate monies are derived by the money markets, whereas tracker rates follow the Bank of England base rate and lenders decide on their own standard variable rates.

With this in mind, personally, I can't see rates having a significant increase for some time yet.  You might see the odd shift here and there, but with over 11,000 mortgage products now in the market place, this is expected.  To back this up, many lenders fell short of targets last year and with a market that is expected to be similar in overall volume in 2017, compared to 2016,  I can only see competition becoming stronger to fight for the business.

Just in the last few days, we've seen Buckinghamshire Building Society launch a first time buyer mortgage at 95% loan to value (LTV), so just a 5% deposit required.  In addition, the rate is an attractive 3.24% and the product has no product fee and £250 cash back.  This lender also reviews cases manually, rather than a credit score.

Accord Mortgages is giving offset mortgage customers £1,000 when their home loan completes, for a limited time.

Virgin Money has launched new residential and buy-to-let fixed rate loans. The range includes a two year residential fixed rate up to 90% LTV at 2.84% for first time buyers. The loan has no product fee and £1,000 cash back.  Virgin has also introduced a five-year residential fixed rate up to 65% LTV now at 1.89%.  The loan has a £995 fee, £300 cash back for purchases, a free valuation and legal fees for remortgages.

And finally, Bank of Ireland for Intermediaries has increased its maximum loan size to £1.5m for Buy to Lets and increased its upper age limit for Residential customers to 75.

So in short, despite the negative press, no one knows what's going to happen this year and with economists pulling their hair out, you just have to think of number one.  You have no loyalty to stay with your current lender when others will offer better rates.  And only you can decide if you want the certainty of a long term fixed rate, or if you are happy to see what happens with a shorter term tracker rate.  As always, terms and conditions apply and, as Martin Lewis said, speak to a whole of market mortgage broker!

Home owning cheaper than renting

Some eye watering statistics from The Money Charity this week.  The Charity has reported that total mortgage lending stood at £1.35 trillion at the end of September.  This is up from £1.275 trillion in 2015.  Averaged over the 11.1m households with a mortgage equates to £118,693 in September.

The average interest rate was 2.74% and according to The Council of Mortgage Lenders, the average for new loans was 2.27%.  They also suggested that the average First Time Buyer deposit was 15% (£28k in July) and the average house price amounted to £184k (August) for first timers.  Yet First Time Buyers borrowed on average just 3.45 times their income! 

There were 40,533 loans approved for house purchase in September, according to the British Bankers Association, similar numbers to a year earlier.  The average loan approved was circa £176k. 

This is interesting as it is a common knowledge that owning a home can be cheaper than renting.  The report goes on to suggest that inclusive of all benefits, private renters spent an average of 43% of their income on rental payments.  In comparison, owner occupiers spent on average 19% of income.

And as we enter the run up to Christmas, it's also useful to note that the average interest rate on credit card lending in September was 18.49%, which is 18.24% above the Bank of England Base Rate of 0.25%!   Remember, doesn't matter which type of credit you use to fund seasonal spends, at some point they all need to be repaid!

And finally, a number of lenders including Platform (Part of Co-op), Virgin Money, Nationwide, Coventry Building Society, Barclays, Halifax and TSB have all changed rates in the last ten days.  The majority with rate cuts and attractive options for new customers including cash back for purchases and free valuation and free legals on remortgages.  There are certainly some fantastic deals available in the current climates.  So if you are thinking of reviewing your mortgage options, now might just be a good time to find that paperwork!