What’s going to happen to interest rates? Over the last few months you won’t be surprised that this is the most often asked question of me and my colleagues at Gordon Blair Financial Services.
As experienced mortgage brokers in Streatham and Norbury you would expect this to be a hot topic of conversation for all clients buying their first property, moving home or remortgaging.
One thing we can say for sure is that the last few months have been the most volatile we have seen in the mortgage market for many years. It is only a year ago that we were offering clients fixed rate mortgage deals at below 1%, at is a peak a few weeks ago these had risen to over 6%!
The good news is that we have seen most mortgage lenders start to reduce their rates over recent weeks and the market has become more stable. We have even had a Bank of England base rate rise this week that has not caused the panic amongst lenders we saw earlier in the year when we had fixed rate deals being withdrawn without notice by some mortgage providers.
In our office in Norbury we are regularly getting clients visit to discuss the hot topic of mortgage interest rates and yesterday after the base rate announcement was no different, a number of new and existing clients popped in to discuss mortgages with us.
The positive news is that Banks are keen to lend and are offering a number of incentives for customers when taking mortgages with them, this can be free valuations, free legal transfer on remortgage and even some cashback paid to you on completion.
If you have a mortgage need for 2023 then now is the time to start making plans, this could be for a remortgage on your current home or investment property needed for next year, an exciting first purchase, a move to a bigger property or your first step on the ladder to being a landlord with an investment purchase.
Whatever the need you have speaking to a mortgage broker is a perfect starting point, by doing this you can get a budget agreed, decide on mortgage type, choose a lender etc. They will get you mortgage ready to be confident you have your finance organised.
There is a lot to be said for getting mortgage prepared early, your mortgage broker can work with you to secure the best fixed rate available, look at tracker rate options, establish affordability and even help advise on property types. They can also organise that all important Agreement in Principle (AIP) to give Estate Agents the confidence you can buy the property you are viewing.
Your mortgage broker can be the greatest ally you can have in navigating the current mortgage market and all of the team at Gordon Blair would be happy to help, you can visit us in our high street office in SW16 or please feel free to contact us on 0208 7157267 or via our website at gordonblair.co.uk