Buy to Let
Mortgage choice hits 16-month high with over 4,500 available products
As competition hots up in the mortgage market, interest rates are being pushed down
Mortgage availability has soared following nine months of consecutive increases in the number of deals on offer to borrowers, said Moneyfacts.
The financial information provider said that total product choice hit its highest level in 16 months, with 4,512 deals on offer. That’s up by 269 new mortgages in the last month alone.
Importantly, there are more deals on offer to borrowers at every loan-to-value tier this month, which means choice has risen for those with small, medium and large deposits.
Borrowers seeking to borrow a large proportion of the property’s value have seen the largest improvements in choice, particularly at 95% LTV, where there was a jump of 61 products compared to June 2021, and the current total of 253 available deals offers 239 products more than there were this time last year.
Rates down
Mortgage rates have fallen too, with both the average overall two-year and five-year fixed rates down over the course of the month to 2.55% and 2.78% respectively. Reducing by 0.04% in both cases, these are the largest monthly reductions recorded for either rate since June 2020, as competiteiion hots up in the mortage market. Despite the drop, rates are still higher than this time last year.
Eleanor Williams, finance expert at Moneyfacts, said: “The level of choice available to those looking for a residential mortgage has risen substantially again between June and July, as volumes rose by 269 new products bringing the total available to over 4,500. Over the past six months alone availability has recovered by 1,619 – or 56% – and for the first time in over three years, we tracked improvements in choice across all the LTV brackets this month, great news for borrowers with all levels of equity or deposit.
“Competition is evident across the residential mortgage sector, but there is no guarantee that rates will continue to fall, or for how long these record-low deals may be available for, therefore seeking advice to assess the best true cost deal for their own circumstances would be a wise move by any prospective borrower.”
