The Ever Present Cloud Of Interest Rate Rises Is Fueling The Remortgage Market

Posted by The Popular News Today on Sunday, June 19, 2011

By James McHeggins


The numbers of Brits remortgaging is set to rise in 2011 according to industry experts. The prospect of the Bank of England Base rate rising from its record low level of 0.5 per cent as well as rising inflation should encourage more Brits to switch their home loan this year, with remortgage levels already having increased by 28 per cent in the last twelve months.

A national UK newspaper also confirmed this with figures showing almost a 30% increase in remortgage applications in February of this year. According to the newspaper, the majority of these remortgages are fixed rates, as most people are predicting a rise in interest rates over the coming months, and so mortgagees are trying to hedge against these increases by fixing their rates.

Recent inflation figures have shown that the cost of living is rising above the Government's target. And, it is this economic factor that is most likely to determine when interest rates rise and by how much. With rates set to rise, more and more people are seeking to mortgage and there were 26,100 remortgage approvals in February 2010; just short of a sixteen month high.

Recent Bank of England figures showed that net mortgage lending at the start of 2011 was above the six month average whilst a British Bankers' Association spokesman confirmed that more people were looking to fix their mortgage rate through a remortgage.

Many mortgage advisers feel that the base rate increases will cause for the remortgage market to boom even further in the latter part of this year. Most organisations within the Financial Services industry appear to believe that the way that inflation and interest rates are predicted to go will help the UK markets to recover much more quickly than they have been in the past few months.

The report also showed that forty per cent of all mortgage advisors were sure that lenders' interest in offering remortgages had grown in the last two quarters, whilst slightly more, just 4 per cent, thought that the appetite for lending had remained the same. Just under two thirds of those interviewed who worked directly in remortgaging claimed that fixed-rate mortgages offered better value for clients, were more secure and were more popular with borrowers.

TMA boss Phil Whitehouse was cautiously optimistic and said: "Directly authorised intermediaries feel the remortgage market has shown signs of life in recent months and will continue to grow, thanks to a number of market influences."

He added: "It has been predicted that interest rates could rise as soon as May and, if this is the case, it will have a big effect on the remortgage market and the levels of remortgage business being written by intermediaries."




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