Mortgages

[chris_j_s]

Its tricky to compare deals if you are at or near a LTV threshold

Interesting, any idea where the thresholds sit? We'd be looking for 60-65%, assuming the most recent valuation holds...

new 5 year fixed rate with Nationwide at 3.59%

Sounds pretty good, if we can get anything like that it will make a big difference to our outgoings.

I renewed with First Direct last year (going down from 6.7% to 2.79% in the process!) which was a pain free experience and their rates seemed very good if you have a LTV of 65%. You can get a 2.79% life tracker or short term fixed rate deals (2 years I think) of 2.64%.

If you want 5 years fixed I think their rate is about 3.79%, so it looks like Nationwide beats that.

[shark]

Not wanting to be too tedious about this but: it's not only the risk of much higher inflation that borrowers should worry about - just a normalisation of monetary policy relative to the current inflation rate would require much higher interest rates. If you look at rates since the BoE was given independence in 1997, they have always been around CPI or a bit higher. The current near-zero rate is very anomalous and is only there because of the stale perception that we are still in a financial crisis.

Absolutely but for a borrower making the most of that knowledge when the timing of the normalisation is unknown in a market where a 5 year fixed rate is the best you can do gives little scope for effective hedging. Lets say you sign up now for 5 years and the normalisation takes place in 4.5 years then you are faced with re-entering the mortgage market when rates and offers will be very poor.   

[T_B]

I'm in the process of applying for a mortgage for purchasing a new house. My FA reckons 5 year fixed are good value at the moment when you consider a) they're only .5% above the Trackers and b) if you look at the long term cost of lending.

We are also in the position where we want to know where we are at as my other half will be stopping working next yr for a few years.

Likely we'll apply for a Woolwich mortgage. Also in the interesting position whereby we're buying a house that needs major work (seemed to make sense, what with our second child due in January  ) so expect to run into difficulties with lender valuations/whether they'll even lend at all... as the roof is f*ct etc etc

[richieb]

Its tricky to compare deals if you are at or near a LTV threshold

Interesting, any idea where the thresholds sit? We'd be looking for 60-65%, assuming the most recent valuation holds...

No idea to be honest. I dont know if there is any consistency across lenders on this but I would have thought you can access most of the best deals with 60-65%.
I found there was either a slightly higher rate or higher fee between say 70 and 75% LTV and if you are just guessing on the value of your house its hard to compare deals.

[namnok]

Just been told by the wife that the boe base rate may Be cut to 0.25% next month.

[shark]

Just been told by the wife that the boe base rate may Be cut to 0.25% next month.

Is she Christine Lagarde ? 

[Johnny Brown]

Just to revisit this, finally getting round to it...

Anyone know any good deals? Looking at 65% LTV over 25 years.

Or care to speculate on what the base rate is likely to do in the next year or two?

[shark]

I hedged my bets and fixed at 3.39% for five years with Nationwide.

Currently Nationwide and HSBC are offering 4 and 5 year fixes at 2.69% and 2.89% respectively but 60% LTV which sounds exceptionally good but obv. look into their fee and other setup costs.

[Johnny Brown]

Ta. Spotted that First Direct are offering 2.14% above base for term, which looks impressive, but then I'm not overly familiar with what the best tracker rates are...

[Johnny Brown]

Any advance on 1.88% above base for term?