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Experts Urge Those Wanting Mortgages to Act Fast

Experts Urge Those Wanting Mortgages to Act Fast Experts have warned that people looking for new mortgages or seeking to remortgage need to act fast before lenders alter the deals available.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders recently said that new mortgage loans fell to just 50,300 in January – the lowest level for nine years.


Brokers said that many lenders are being more picky about who they offer mortgages to, and are ensuring that they utilise a large variety of different products.

One side effect of this is that the more competitive mortgage deals are short-lived, while the criteria for eligibility are changing rapidly.

With over a million fixed-rate deals due to expire this year, banks are wary of funding too many mortgages due to pressure from the global credit crunch.

Potential home buyers are also feeling the pinch from estate agents, who are quizzing them increasingly hard to be certain that they can afford the property they want and won’t be getting deep into debt.

People without the means to provide a large deposit are finding themselves shut out of many mortgage deals, while mortgages of greater value than the property in question are becoming increasingly scarce.


Ever since December 2007, some 41 lenders – from small players in the sector to household names – have reduced the amount of their maximum loan.

The big lenders to have done this include The Co-operative Bank, the Alliance & Leicester, the Britannia Building Society, the Cheltenham & Gloucester and the Bradford & Bingley.

Cheltenham & Gloucester has also raised the interest rate for some deals, explaining that it is trying to "manage" the high volume of demand for its mortgages.

However, some of the biggest lenders are still offering mortgages at 95 per cent loan to value – the ratio of the size of a loan compared to the value of a borrower's home. They include Abbey, Woolwich, Halifax, and the Nationwide Building Society.

Remortgage News posted on 27 March 2008

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