Nationwide Cuts Mortgage Rates

The Nationwide Building Society has cut mortgage rates by as much as 0.84% in a sign that competition is finally returning to the market for housing finance. The average cut across about 30 mortgage products of Britain's biggest building society is 0.23%. This is a welcome sign for those people who took out fixed mortgages 2 years ago when the LIBOR interest rate went above 6% following the near-collapse and Government take over of Northern Rock. At the time, bankers were unable to source funds on the wholesale markets.

The Nationwide's rate for a 4 year fixed mortgage will fall from 5.78% to 4.94%. Both HSBC and Abbey have recently tweaked their mortgage products. Various house price indices have indicated that the housing market is now past its bottom encouraging lenders to re-enter the market for 90 and 95% loan to value mortgages. The best deals remain for those borrowing less than 60% of their property's value.

House Price Rise is a False Dawn

The Ernst and Young ITEM club have produced an economic report that claims that the current bouyancy in the UK housing market is a false dawn. The club forecasts that prices will soon start to fall again and that they wont return to the peak price levels of 2007 until 2014.

Recent price rises, seen since the spring, have been driven by a shortage of properties. At some point the immediate shortage will be over and the underlying recessionary conditions will put a dampener on the ability of buyers to raise bids.

At current mortgage interest rates, home buying is currently more affordable than at any time in the previous 7 years. HSBC recently a 1.99% mortgage product for those buyers who can afford a 40% deposit.