What's happening with mortgages?

(June 2011)

Fixed Mortgage rates: There are large differences in rate depending on the deposit you can offer. It's now possible to find mortgages to suit a 10% deposit. 5 year Fixed Rates are noticeably more expensive as the market prices in possible significant increases in rates in years to come.

Tracker rates - more choice seen: There's a good choice of Tracker and variable rates and the "headline" rates aren't varying much because if rate rises do happen soon, borrowers with variable rate mortgages will immediately see their payments rise. We urge caution, though, before deciding a short-term Tracker rate is just the tonic your finances need. Our cautious view is fully explained here. Don't hesitate to contact us if you want to discuss your mortgage rate and the possibilities of remortgaging.

Lenders more cautious: Several of the lenders who used to lend on Rural Home Ownership Grant purchases, shared equity schemes, or for self-builds, have withdrawn from those markets leaving a much reduced choice of mortgage terms. If you're intending to go this route, come and have a chat with us about what's available.

Coming to the end of a mortgage product? Considering remortgaging?: Standard Variable Rate mortgages have been good news just now for many Orkney mortgage payers; we tend to have smaller mortgages here and people don't move as frequently. For many folk, the best advice recently when they've come to the end of a Fixed Rate mortgage is to allow the loan to slip into the lender's Standard Variable Rate, but that's changing as the risk of interest rates going up becomes greater. Talk to us about the options.

Whether it's worth considering a remortgage depends on much more than just interest rates.

There are some other factors affecting mortgages which have appeared as a result of the credit crunch and economic crisis. Click here.

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        Your home may be repossessed if you don't keep up repayments on your mortgage.