For a while now, we have been hearing in the press that lenders are not keen to lend, which in some cases may have put some of the public off considering a house move and applying for a new mortgage or even re-mortgaging.
As we approach the end of 2010, which has been a financially and politically interesting year to say the least, lenders are focussing on their lending targets coupled with their end of year shareholders reports that will be due at the beginning of 2011.
Recently we have seen a number of lenders becoming more aggressive in their mortgage pricing and in offering incentives to new borrowers. Currently a few are offering free valuations to house buyers and sometimes even free standard legal work - which could be very valuable when you are considering the overall cost of buying your new home,
For re-mortgaging of residential properties, a number of lenders are offering both free basic legal work as well as a free valuation. Many borrowers are currently on their lenders Standard Variable Rate, some of which could be considerably higher than some Tracker rates which are currently being offered! This now makes the prospect of re-mortgaging to a new lender well worth considering.
Some lenders are offering tracker rates significantly lower than some Standard Variable Rates that a number of borrowers are! And if you are concerned about rates rising in the future one or two lenders are offering the option to switch to a Fixed Rate without incurring Early Repayment Charges (although there is likely to be an arrangement fee if a borrower was to take advantage of this) at any time during the Tracker Rate period!
This year it has been encouraging year, seeing the mortgage lenders take an increasingly responsible attitude to lending and now most lenders look carefully at the affordability of their borrowers and have sensible lending criteria, ensuring that borrowers should be able to maintain their mortgages for the foreseeable future.
Of course, purchasing a new home or re-mortgaging will not be the best option for many people but with the incentives currently available from lenders and the low level of interest rates from a historical point of view, these options are well worth investigating at the moment.
If you would like independent advice on mortgages or protection, feel free to call Alpha Independent Mortgages on 0844 5008300 or visit Alpha Independent Mortgage’s website – www.alphaim.co.uk
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage
Because we are independent, you can choose how we are paid – please click here for details:
Most lenders will pay us a commission when we introduce business to them, at the point of us making a recommendation to you, we will ensure that you are aware of the amount of commission that we will be paid, it will be stated clearly on the Key Facts Illustration that we will give you. Typically it will be between 0.3% and 0.75%.
The two choices that you have are:
You can pay us a fee, which will be 0.75% of the mortgage amount that you apply for and we will refund the commission that the lender pays us, to you on completion of your mortgage.
You do not pay us a fee and we will retain the commission that we receive from the lender as our payment for arranging your mortgage.
Our minimum expected income for arranging a mortgage is £850. Typically a lender would pay a commission to Alpha Independent Mortgages 0.4% of the amount of the loan. For example on a mortgage of £200,000 this would be £800. In this example we would charge you a fee to cover the difference between £800 and £850 which is £50, on completion. If you choose to pay us a fee and have us refund the commission to you, we still expect a minimum of £850 for the advice and will charge you the difference between 0.75% of the mortgage and £850 if the fee is less.
