17.06.10 by Andrew Montlake
MORTGAGE UPDATE: Fixed rates maintain sex appeal
The Council of Mortgage Lenders has revealed that gross mortgage lending declined 12% to around £10.2bn last month compared with March, which is the lowest April total since 2000.
Even taking into account the traditional Easter dip in activity, the figures for first-time buyers are the most disappointing, and highlight how difficult it still is to secure finance without a sizable deposit.
Although there has been a rise in the amount of products available at slightly higher loan-to-values, we are still longing for more innovation from lenders, which would help to encourage first-time buyers back to the market.
Optimism
Taking into account the possibility that the emergency budget next week could dampen the housing market recovery, lending is still likely to improve during the second part of the year, especially with homeowners who have previously put off remortgaging now starting to take advantage of some exceptional fixed rate offerings.
As far as purchase activity is concerned, we are beginning to see more enquiries from buyers who want to take advantage of historically low rates, but who are only being constrained by the lack of good quality housing stock.
Deals
Lenders continue to make fixed rates even more attractive, and you can now obtain a two-year fixed rate deal from just 2.69%, three-year fixes at 3.64% and five-year fixes at a highly attractive 3.99%.
We are also beginning to see some lenders tentatively returning to the large loan mortgage arena at attractive rates above £1m.
At this level, private banks are still offering exceptional deals, and traditional cash buyers are now taking advantage of the low borrowing rates rather than putting all their cash into the property market.
Monty’s Mortgage Blog
11.01.12
2012: What does the future hold for the mortgage market?
In my mind 2012 was always meant to be the year when everything began to improve, after all we have the Olympics and the feel good factor from that together with a good Euro Championships would surely propel us on to bigger and better things?
Coreco
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