Three of the leading mortgage lenders yesterday cut their interest rates in advance of the Bank of England’s base rate setting decision. Abbey, Lloyds SB and Cheltenham & Gloucester announced a drop of up to 0.30%.
It is the fifth reduction in the last month by Lloyds TSB. Skipton Building Society released news that it now had on offer 95% per cent loans for first time buyers. This now means that the cost of a mortgage is now at levels not seen since before the credit crunch began. This can only be seen as good news as the number of secured loans approved in July rose slightly over the previous month.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of England has kept base rates at 5 per cent again this month and has done so since April, so what is causing the sudden reduction in mortgage rates?
The main reason is the recent reduction in something called swap rates, the rates financial institutions charge when lending to each other. These rose sharply in June, driving up the cost of mortgages, but have started to fall. Swap rates are now at their lowest for several months, fuelling the widespread reductions in fixed-rate mortgages.
This isn’t the only factor driving down rates. Mortgage lenders are beginning to regain their confidence and are offering better rates than their competitors. The bad news is that the most competitive rates are only available to people with large deposits or loads of spare equity in their property. The greater the loan to value ratio (LTV), the more expensive the mortgage. Nationwide currently charges 5.78 per cent for a two-year fixed rate up to 60 per cent LTV for remortgages (with a ?599 arrangement fee), rising to 5.88 per cent up to 75 per cent LTV and 6.33 per cent up to 90 per cent LTV. That means paying an extra 0.55 per cent if you borrow 90 per cent of your property’s value instead of 60 per cent. With the drop in property prices, people wanting to remortgage will have reducing equity in their property, and will need to get a higher LTV loan.
These lower rates won’t last long. The next set of rates are likely to be more expensive. So buy now while stocks last.
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