The mortgage market is an interesting one at the moment. There is quite a spread of mortgage policies across the different types of mortgage products, showing that finding the best mortgage deals can be first of all difficult to determine which are. About a quarter of people with a mortgage are on their lenders standard variable rate (SVR) with many stating they will stay put until the market improves. They have good reason to stay; many SVR’s are lower than interest rates currently being offered by other mortgage lenders as they look to sew up their balance sheets.
With the country in recession and showing signs of recovery it can be a difficult time to find those best mortgage deals, you never know when interest rates are going to jump. Many people in the second quarter opted to go with fixed rate mortgage deals so they could lock in to a low rate deal while interest rates are low as well as give themselves piece of mind of knowing their interest rates each and every month without increases being applied. Fixed rate mortgage deals have however shot up as the swap rates that banks use have increased.
However the Bank of England has predicted a recovery will be slow and inflation will stay within target for sometime therefore the
best mortgage deals for the moment look like tracker mortgages. These will have an interest rate made up of the base rate and then a certain percentage to track above it. A search for mortgage deals reveals that these would offer the best interest rates for consumers at the moment with interest rates having to go up to around 2.5% to make current fixed rate mortgage offers better value.
The Bank of England’s governor is a very credible source and if I were looking for a mortgage at the moment I would go with a tracker mortgage and then look to change when interest rates were on a steady rise. I would take the opportunity of the low interest rates to overpay on the mortgage now so I can reduce the mortgage as much as possible.
If you prefer to play it safe then the best mortgage deals for you would be fixed rate mortgage policies.