Well known high street building society the Alliance and Leicester has just announced some new mortgage offers offering a variety of options for housebuyers.
Fixed rate mortgages are very popular right now as people look to get some stability with their repayments. To this end the Alliance and Leicester mortgage offers include two new fixed rate options. Their five year fixed rate deal will cover up to 90 percent of the property price and stands at 7.14 percent interest. There is also a shorter two year rate, quoting just 6.14 percent interest but restricted to those able to put down a deposit of 25 percent or more.
Catering for the variable rate market the Alliance and Leicester have also introduced a tracker mortgage that follows the Bank of England base rate. Of course this does not ensure a fixed repayment amount but the interest rates are currently lower than the fixed rate alternatives so can prove enticing.
According to just released industry figures the number of mortgage approvals is down by a massive 20 percent compared with last month and almost 60 percent less than the same time last year.
There were just 28,000 mortgages approved last month, the lowest number since the records began in 1997. Bank of Scotland, for which mortgages are a core part of their business confirmed the validity of these numbers, saying they had seen similar, though not as extreme, results.
What the Bank of Scotland have seen though is a continuation in the level of remortgage business, something that they have been pleased with since this shows that there is still interest in the rates as they stand.
According to new research many homeowners are not taking an active role in understanding and managing their mortgage.It has become clear that many homeowners do not understand the fundamentals of their mortgage and this is stopping them to achieving savings.Many homeowners tend to forget about their mortgage deal and just see it as a one off purchase to aid in them buying a property. But they are in fact missing out on saving a lot of money by not taking a more active role to learn and understand fully about mortgages. Research found that a large majority of mortgage payers did not even know what interest rate they were currently paying on their mortgage deal. This lack of interest by these homeowners could cost them a fortune in years to come if they do not take more interest in their finances. Knowing when to switch mortgages deals at the right time to get a lower rate of interest can save homeowners thousands of pounds. See our mortgage comparison table for more information or our guides and tips pages.