18
Sep
More mortgage deals are "always good"
It is "always good" to have more deals on the market, according to
one property expert.
Ben Wilkie, editor at What Mortgage magazine, said that he hopes
lenders will follow the lead of HBSC, which claims that call
volumes have increased by 78 per cent since it reduced mortgage
rates.
His comments follow an announcement by Woolwich that it is
introducing a one-year tracker mortgage with a rate of 1.98 per
cent.
Contracts became available yesterday with a loan-to-value of 60 per
cent.
"The HSBC one is different [to the Woolwich mortgage] because HSBC
is direct only, whereas with Woolwich you can go through a broker
for it," stated Mr Wilkie.
This news comes after the Council of Mortgage Lenders recently
reported that the number of mortgage approvals has seen its first
year-on-year rise since early 2007.
It revealed that there were 56,000 home loans in July 2009, which
constitutes an increase of 24 per cent from June 2009 and 19 per
cent from July 2008.
