Our CEO Luke Loveridge talked with Kelly Sjöberg to get her view on whether 2022 is a good time to re-mortgage. Part 2 focuses on what options there are for people, especially those who may be stuck on rates and those wanting to have longer term certainty.
Kelly has been a mortgage and protection adviser for 14 years and currently works as a business development manager at Smart Advice Financial Solutions who are a network partner of the Mortgage Advice Bureau.
She looks after key relationships (such as banks and mortgage lenders) and organises lender training for mortgage advisers, whilst still providing mortgage advice; especially ‘buy-to-lets’ and re-mortgages.
Luke: What re-mortgage options are there given the interest rate rise?
Kelly:
If you haven’t been able to move previously there’s more options available for mortgage prisoners; the people that haven’t previously been able to move because affordability has changed or debts etc have meant they can’t move lender. There’s more options available now where you can if you can evidence you’ve paid your mortgage for 12-months, it doesn’t matter on affordability they can go for a new fixed rate, which is something we haven’t previously seen.
We’ve also got obviously the standard variable rates, when the Bank of England has been increasing, we’ve already seen the lenders pass that on to their standard variable rate, so you will be seeing anyone start on standard variable rate at the moment, monthly payments going to be going out so it’s really worthwhile fixing especially whilst the fixed rates are always going to be lower than the standard variable rates are.
And anyone that’s sat on a fixed rate that might be ending in the next 6-months as well. So it’s always worthwhile looking in advance because you might have a product maybe September end date, you can reserve a rate, if by doing a mortgage application today for example and that would mean then some lenders will have that valid for your rate in September when that deal comes to an end. So if we do see any further increases and rate rises and then you’ll be secured on the rate that you can secure today rather than what might be available in the time of September etc.
It’s always worth getting advice on it because there are fixed rates available from 5, 7, 10, even up to 40 years at the moment. So if you do want to secure an interest rate and avoid potential future rate rises for the long-term. You can do so, especially if you are in your forever home and you know that that’s going to be where you want to be and just make sure you’re budget’s right.
2022 is a great time to re-mortgage and really the sooner the better. It’s definitely worth speaking to a mortgage broker to get an idea of your options.
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