Author: interestratesinfo

Liz Truss has refused to apologise for the surge in mortgage rates in recent years, caused as part of the banking crisis, fuelled largely by her disastrous mini-budget in October 2022.

Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister says she was ‘completely blindsided’ by the adverse impact the fiscal announcement would have on the mortgage market and wider UK economy.

In an interview with Sky News On Sunday yesterday, Truss who ousted from power by her own MPs after less than six weeks, said that “mortgage rates have gone up across the world”, and that she was therefore not responsible for what has happened here in the UK.

She said: “The issues that I faced in office were issues of not being able to deliver the agenda I’d set out because of a deep resistance within the British economic establishment.

Read More

Fixed mortgage rates have edged up since February, after almost six months of consecutive rate cuts by lenders.

Since the start of February the average two-year fixed rate mortgage has risen from 5.56 per cent to 5.81 per cent, according to Moneyfacts. 

Meanwhile, the average five-year fix has risen from 5.18 per cent to 5.38 per cent.

The lowest five-year fixed rates on the market are currently all above 4 per cent while the lowest two-year fixes are all above 4.5 per cent.

This will come as a hit to the 1.6 million households remortgaging this year,  many of which will be coming off rates of 2 per cent or less.

This pain is expected to continue over the coming years as more people come to the end of their cheaper fixed rate deals. 

Read More

When Richard Wise* moved from London to Margate in Kent three years ago, he did not expect to move again any time soon. But the music industry manager and his partner are planning to downsize from a four- to a three-bedroom property after their mortgage rate quadrupled.

“After Liz Truss’s bombshell [the September 2022 mini-budget that led to rising mortgage rates], our mortgage repayments doubled last year,” the 40-year-old says.

Although the couple had access to an inheritance, which they used to pay off some of the mortgage, their increased monthly outlay – the rate jumped from 1.09% to 4.9% – put a strain on their bank balance.

Read More

The mortgage price war appears to have slowed so borrowers need to act fast to find the best deal if they want to remortgage or get a home loan to buy a property.

Mortgage lenders started cutting rates at the tail-end of 2023 amid hopes that the Bank of England would cut the base rate early in the New Year amid slowing inflation.

But financial markets are now expecting an interest rate cut towards the middle rather than start of this year and economic uncertainty has pushed up swap rates, prompting lenders to starting increasing their pricing again.

Even the best deals aren’t sticking around for long as borrowers rush to snap up lower rates.

Read More

UK households have been told they can cut their mortgage bill to just £330 a month – if they act decisively and DOWNSIZE. Mortgage holders can get their monthly payments cut from over £700 to £300 by picking the right property.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, a string of couples who have made the bold move have spoken out over the savings they have been making. Richard Wise moved from London to Margate, and slashed his costs, while a 50-year-old in Edinburgh cut her fixed-rate deal on a five-year mortgage to £330 a month – down from a variable tracker which was costing £750.

“It’s more a fear of what could happen,” she said. “I was a teenager when mortgage rates went crazy … and so I’m worried about those kind of scary figures and [rates] going out of control with the current government. With everything increasing, it feels like one piece of the puzzle we can have control of.”

Read More