Legal and General has brought a new tracker mortgage to the market, with a maximum loan to value of 75 percent.
The mortgage does have a GBP999 arrangement fee, though this can be added to the mortgage value. There is also an offset facility at no extra charge and, for those looking for a remortgage there is a separate package or a cash return. In a quiet mortgage market Legal and General hope that this particular approach will generate considerable interest.
A spokesman from the company said that this particular tracker mortgage option would be perfect for someone with equity in their property and a balance of money that could be offset against the home loan. Legal and General are happy to answer any queries regarding the tracker mortgage, inviting people to get in touch either on line, by phone or at their local branch.
The Abbey National has just released figures showing that, for the first half of the year, they had over a quarter of the UK new mortgage market.
A performance at this level means that the Abbey National could take the title of biggest UK mortgage lender depending on the results posted by its closest competitor next week. With an increase of 17 percent compared with the same time last year the improvement is quite remarkable, especially in the current economic climate. In fact a spokesman from the Abbey was pleased to say that they had taken a risk-averse approach to lending, making the huge increase even more noteworthy.
The successful approach taken by the Abbey National has been to look at lower loan to value business, with borrowers basically needing a bigger deposit. Against this growth it will be interesting to see how the main protagonists in the mortgage market plan to win back market share.
A review of the current mortgage market by Legal and General shows that the fixed rate mortgage is still very popular with consumers despite the recent rate rises they have experienced.
Legal and General have looked at the differences in mortgage choices between Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of this year, seeing where the key trends are. Fixed rate mortgages fared very well, going up from 35 percent of the market in Q1 to 58 percent in Q2. This was achieved even though interest rates went up, on average, to 6.51 percent from 5.87 percent on the popular 2 year fixed rate mortgage.
The market for mortgages is going to remain very keen on fixed rate products it seems due to the expectation of increased mortgage costs in the future. House buyers want a level of security say Legal and General, something that a fixed rate mortgage provides as the repayment amount will not be affected by base rate changes.
