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.
Liverpool Victoria has just introduced a new Flexible Lifetime Mortgage, accessible to financial advisors through their existing systems.
The Liverpool Victoria mortgage allows customers aged between 60 and 95 to use equity in their property as a cash resource, drawing a minimum of GBP10,000 initially, then in increments of GBP2,000 up to the maximum loan to value amount. Financial advisors will be able to provide quotes for interested parties from their existing Assureweb systems, making it a quick and easy exercise.
Targeting the older end of the market this style of mortgage offered by Liverpool Victoria enables customers to access the value of their home when they may need it most and still retain ownership of the property.
Halifax has just announced the eighth cut in their mortgage rates this year, with almost half of their mortgage products having their interest rates reduced by up to 0.15 percent.
A typical example is the Halifax 5 year fixed rate mortgage which comes down from a 6.49 percent interest rate to 6.34 percent. The Halifax has also cut fees on some of its products, with the recently introduced stepped tracker mortgage having GBP200 cut off the fee.
The mortgage market is seeing all manner of fluctuations right now, with the base rate and general economic climate leading mortgage providers to look at different ways to get customers on board. The Halifax is doing what it can by cutting rates and fees where they can and are hopeful that demand will increase on the back of them.
