Homeowners must ‘move fast’ to secure new mortgage deal
HOMEOWNERS must ‘move fast’ to secure a new fixed mortgage deal after rates started to rise again, experts warned yesterday.
The biggest banks and building societies have rushed to increase the cost of borrowing over the past week.
It followed a sell- off of government bonds triggered by renewed fears about the country’s persistently high inflation.
Mortgage rates had stabilised last month after hitting a 14-year high in October after liz truss and Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-Budget.
At the beginning of May, the average two-year fixed deal was 5.26 per cent, with five-year fixes averaging 4.97 per cent.
But rates are now climbing once again after inflation fell by less than expected in April.
The average two-year fixedrate deal is now 5.45 per cent, with five-year deals sitting at 5.12 per cent.
Economists believe the Bank of england will now need to
‘Rates will keep going upwards’
increase its base rate – currently at 4.5 per cent – further than previously expected, in an attempt to tame inflation.
Experts have predicted the Bank’s rate will hit 5 per cent before the end of the year, driving up the cost of borrowing for millions.
David Hollingworth, from brokers L&C Mortgages, said the ‘very volatile’ market conditions were seeing lenders pull mortgage products or hike their rates at short notice.
‘Anyone that has been thinking about locking into a fixed rate may therefore have to move fast to secure a rate,’ he told Sky news.
‘Those looking ahead toward the end of their current deal may also want to start shopping around sooner in case rates remain elevated or continue to climb.’ Andrew Montlake, of mortgage broker coreco, agreed that homeowners should lock in deals before rates rise further.
He said: ‘Anyone who needs to remortgage or wants to buy a property this year should do so sooner rather than later. rates are being repriced upwards and lenders are going to continue to do that.’
More than 700 residential and buy-to-let mortgage deals have been pulled from the market since the beginning of last week as lenders brace for future interest rate rises.
Approximately 4,995 residential mortgages were available yesterday, down from 5,385 on May 22.
the moves echo the fallout from September’s mini-Budget, which saw 935 mortgage deals pulled overnight as lenders frantically repriced them at a higher rate.
Yesterday HSBC increased its fixed-rate mortgages by up to 0.38 percentage points and First Direct raised its deals by up to 0.36 percentage points. Meanwhile, last week the cooperative Bank and Platform withdrew their entire mortgage range.
Monmouthshire Building Society and Danske Bank are now the only lenders offering deals below 4 per cent, despite rates at this level being available just three months ago.
Of the High Street lenders, NatWest is offering a five-year fix for existing homeowners at 4.05 per cent.
Property sales fell by 25 per cent in April compared with the same month last year, according to HM revenue and customs figures released yesterday. the slowdown in the property market last autumn as a result of the mini-Budget has fed into April’s sales figures, due to the time it takes to complete a property purchase.
the occasional Friday and he’s still here after 12 years. That’s a long temporary job, isn’t it Phillip!?’
Smiling, Schofield tells the story of how he came to be cast in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Schofield asks: ‘Can you sing?’
The runner interjects: ‘Well I sing in the shower’ to which Schofield agrees, adding: ‘In the car.’ The two laugh over a clip of Schofield in his days presenting children’s programmes for the BBC with Gordon the Gopher from the 1980s Broom Cupboard set. Schofield says: ‘I don’t know what’s worse there – whether it’s the singing or the jumper.’
The younger man counters: ‘I think it’s all brilliant, I really do. For me that’s what I think a children’s presenter should be. It’s entertaining.’
He goes on to tell his mentor: ‘I think you are doing very well,’ adding: ‘You are getting away with it, managing to keep it going.’
ITV did not respond to a request for comment on the video today.
A friend of Schofield’s said this week that his young boyfriend was ambitious enough to forge friendships with his famous friends.
‘He was very much into the spotlight and the lifestyle,’ they said. ‘It was obvious to everyone that they were an item.’
Last Friday Schofield released a statement to the Mail in which he said he was ‘deeply sorry’ for having lied about his relationship with the boy following questions from our sister paper, The Mail on Sunday.
He said: ‘I did have a consensual onoff relationship with a younger male colleague at This Morning.
‘Contrary to speculation, whilst I met the man when he was a teenager and was asked to help him to get into television, it was only after he started to work on the show that it became more than just a friendship. That relationship was unwise, but not illegal. It is now over.
‘When I chose to come out I did so entirely for my own wellbeing. Nobody “forced” me out. Neither I nor anyone else, to my knowledge, has ever issued an injunction, super or otherwise, about my relationship with this colleague, he was never moved on or sacked by or because of me.
‘In an effort to protect my ex- colleague I haven’t been truthful about the relationship.
‘But my recent, unrelated, departure from This Morning fuelled speculation and raised questions which have been impacting him, so for his sake it is important for me to be honest now.’