- Lowest number of Mortgage Approvals since records began.
- In a breaking report from the Bank of England only 64,000 mortgages were approved last month.
- Tue 29th Apr 2008
- Are the Banks getting greedy?
- In a test case in the High Court today, 8 UK Banks may be deemed to have be charging their customers unfairly.
- Thu 24th Apr 2008
- Comparison websites under the hot spotlight.
- The centre for competition policy has produced a report saying independent checks need to be made of comparison websites.
- Sat 12th Apr 2008
Mortgage lives 'getting shorter'
Tue 4 Dec 2007 3pm
The average home loan is getting shorter in duration as remortgaging becomes more popular among British property owners, an expert has stated.Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, said that the UK is home to a growing number of people who choose to remortgage their houses "frequently".
According to the mortgage broker firm, the average life of a mortgage is now just three and a half years. There are a variety of reasons for remortgaging, with some people using the additional funds for home improvements and others looking to consolidate existing debts.
"For the vast majority of people who are approaching the end of their deal - ideally about three months before they reach the end - they need to think about either remortgaging or taking a product transfer with their existing lender," Mr Boulger advised.
"At the end of the day, the most important thing is to make sure the new mortgage you take out is affordable," he added.
Recent research from Nationwide found that 75 per cent of UK borrowers do not realise how significantly a rate difference of one per cent can alter the overall cost of a mortgage.
