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Early birds can fix their terms

Wednesday 19th March 2008

With turbulence in the UK financial industries, many lenders are raising the rates on their headline mortgage products, John Charcol notes.

Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at the mortgage broker, suggests that early action could be wise for many homeowners as a result.

"Borrowers who want to remortgage should start to investigate their options as much as six or seven months before their current deal ends," he advises.

In order to ensure they are kept abreast of the latest developments in the market, Mr Boulger adds that those looking to remortgage could be wise to consult an all-of-market broker.

He argues that, despite the base rate beginning to drop, many lenders could be looking to protect their portfolios in the long term.

This could mean lending rates continue to rise in spite of the lower base rate set by the Bank of England.

In turn, Mr Boulger suggests that more drastic action might be needed by the Bank - which may see a series of interest rate cuts carried out "aggressively" by the financial institution.

Homeowners could already be facing affordability concerns in light of the numerous base rate increases performed by the Bank over the past one and a half years.

Figures published by Citizens Advice note that, during the first two months of 2008, the number of enquiries relating to mortgage arrears rose by 35 per cent compared with the same period in the previous year.

Director of policy Teresa Perchard termed "a worrying trend" the "very sharp increase" in the number of mortgage problems being reported to the organisation.©

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