The Halifax is to close over 50 of its estate agent branches across the country with the loss of around a hundred jobs.
The move by the Halifax comes on the back of what they have described as a significant decline in house sale numbers over the last 12 months. The heart of the Halifax estate agency business is in the North and Midlands, and it is here that they will focus most of their efforts moving forwards.
Around 550 people will find their estate agency branches closing but the Halifax will be able to relocate most of these people, with a hundred that will hopefully be taken up primarily through voluntary redundancies and natural staff turnover.
New mortgage customers at the Halifax will have to pay a little more for their home loans from today if they are taking out a tracker or fixed rate mortgage product.
The Halifax tracker mortgage rate goes up to 6.29 percent from 5.99, which is 1.29 percent above the base rate set by the Bank of England. Meanwhile the three year fixed rate mortgage offer rises to 6.44 percent, up from 6.22. A Halifax spokesman clarified that the increases will apply to just 5 of the 32 different tracker mortgages they offer and 19 of the 31 different fixed rate mortgages provided.
In that context then there are still many opportunities to avoid paying the extra interest, though of course the Halifax mortgage products that have been selected are the ones that will be the most popular.
A study carried out by the Lloyds TSB mortgage department has found that the days of the removal man may be numbered as people take a do it themselves approach.
The bank surveyed their mortgage customers and found that over half of them were planning to move into their new home under their own steam, without employing professionals to move their goods. Lloyds TSB also found that the estate agent was being cut out of 10 percent of home sales as vendors sold privately.
A Lloyds TSB mortgage department advisor commenting on the results suggested that the economic climate could be driving these changes. The average cost of employing a professional removal company is over GBP7,000 so being able to save a lot of that makes good sense.
