January Mortgage Market Update

It seems crazy that January is already almost over as we move towards the usually busy Spring period at a rate of knots.

Coreco has been busy in the media once more, commenting in the National Press about the housing market generally. The December figures from the Bank of England survey suggested that lenders had seen demand for house purchases drop slightly at the end of the year, which was, of course, to be expected against December last year.

However, lenders are expecting that the availability of home finance will rise in Q1 of 2022, driven by a significant uplift in demand from new buyers and existing homeowners wanting to remortgage.

As we told The Independent, “Transactions in December 2020 were given a phenomenal boost by the stamp duty holiday, so it’s no surprise that transactions last month were down in comparison. The fact that transactions were up on November is a better reflection of where the market is at.”

It does seem that the market is indeed off to a buoyant start, especially in and around London, as people start to go back to the office, students return and a good many people who moved out of London are already looking for a return. The term “Pied-à-Terre” is likely to have a familiar ring once more.

With the spectre of inflation still looming strong and refusing to back down, the chance of further rate rises grows stronger and stronger. People want to lock into low rates and lock into them fast as possible, whether buying or remortgaging. Find out more about inflation and mortgages in our handy guide.

We were also in the Financial Times talking about how technology, especially blockchain technology, is looking at trying to speed up the house buying process. As they reported, “an analysis of Land Registry data found the full sale process took an average 295 days from start to finish”.

The time is absolutely ripe for technology to resolve these issues, but everyone needs to be on board for this to succeed, so we will continue to monitor developments in this space.

Meanwhile, there are still loads of competitive rates available out there, with a couple of new lenders to add into the mix, plus some lenders improving their offerings to self-employed and contractor buyers.

Have a great week.

Best Mortgage Rates

In terms of mortgage rates, for standard residential mortgages, borrowers can obtain 2-year fixes at 1.26% (3.30% APRC) and 5-year fixes from 1.39%, (2.90% APRC) whilst variable tracker rates are around from 0.99%, (3.20% APRC).

Those looking at Buy-To-Let can now obtain products from 0.99%, (4.30% APRC) for a 2-year fixed or 5-year fix are available from 1.49% (3.70% APRC).

Please feel free to contact us to speak to one of our friendly mortgage experts.