Acouple of things have caught my eye this week in terms of mortgage lending institutions. First of all we have the British Banking Association, (BBA), defending the large gaps between LIBOR rates and the product pricing we are seeing, and we also have a Which report on what 2000 of their members say are the best and worst mortgage lenders.
As far as 3 month LIBOR is concerned this was always the reason that lenders used for not lending during the height of the credit crunch when it was artificially high. Now, according to Moneyfacts, “Three-month Libor is at 0.55 per cent, while the average two-year tracker rate is 3.76 per cent. Two-year swaps, which lenders use to fund fixed-rate mortgages, are at 1.84 per cent, compared with the average two-year fixed-rate deal at 5.13 per cent”.
As an interesting little test in the greatest tradition of Back To The Future I wondered if you could write something with the benefit of hindsight and post it in the past?
If this is the case then perhaps that is that how some people can say “I told you so” and show the post they blogged some time ago?
Very interesting and we shall see.
By the way, I reckon Torres will score a hatrick on Saturday!
With fixed rates having risen in recent weeks and now looking a tad overpriced, especially for longer term fixes, tracker products are booming again due to headline rates with a “1” at the start.
Whilst HSBC have stolen all the headlines with their 1.99% lowest rate ever malarkey, (actually the lowest rate I remember was 0% for 6 months!), Woolwich have quietly taken up the fight and slipped in a stepped tracker product starting at 1.98% !
The other day I caught, almost by accident, the new Apprentice type programme on BBC which I found fascinating. Fascinating because the new SirAlan is none other than the French design genius Philippe Starck – brilliant, off the wall and tremendous fun to watch. Anyway, his way of looking at things I can really relate to and it could also apply to our own ethos at Coreco.
For those that don’t know, according to Wikipedia “Philippe Starck is a French product designer and probably the best known designer in the New Design style. His designs range from spectacular interior designs to mass produced consumer goods such as toothbrushes, chairs, and even houses.”
Last week I found myself on stage as part of a panel addressing 50 of Australia’s top mortgage brokers who were interested in how their own impending regulation will impact them. What they soon realised, a year after Lehman’s went, (a year tomorrow 15th actually), was just how lucky they have been and how hard things have been here.
As I am sure you can imagine, the Aussies were not shy in coming forward and the questions were fast, furious, incisive and intelligent. I was very grateful to have met such a great bunch of people and whilst I left with visions of answering the phone Coreco Sydney in my beach wear and thongs it was a sharp reminder how a year ago we all seemed to fall off a cliff with no parachute.
Andrew Montlake, Communications Director at Coreco and ‘Mortgage Personality of the Year 2008’, gives his views — honest and no holds barred — on the latest developments within the mortgage and property markets.
