A number of Abbey National mortgages have had their rates of interest reduced it was announced today, though the reductions are very modest.
All Abbey National tracker and flexible rate mortgages are seeing an interest rate cut of 0.05 percent, whilst some of the fixed rate mortgages are coming down by 0.17 percent. The ones seeing these bigger reductions are the safer options for the lender, namely seventy-five percent loan to value mortgages. This means the borrower had to put down a deposit of twenty-five percent. The five year fixed rate for this sort of Abbey National mortgage is therefore down from 5.92 percent to 5.75 percent.
An Abbey National mortgages spokesperson explained that the focus of the lender was to offer choice and value. To this end they have reduced rates on a variety of mortgages as the opportunity has arisen in order to deliver competitive products to their customers.
Find the best rate on an Abbey National mortgage at Moneygossip.co.uk
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.
Abbey National is bringing a 10 year fixed rate mortgage to the market this week aimed at bringing peace of mind to buyers concerned about changing interest rates.
Recent studies have shown that longer period fixed rate mortgages are more popular with consumers, the 5 year versus 3 year fixed rate options proving this point very well. The move by Abbey National to bring in a 10 year fixed rate option is hoped to win more buyers over to the idea, especially as the interest rate is just 6.24 percent. There is an initial fee of GBP999 but this still represents excellent value whilst providing the security that homebuyers crave.
This longer period has impressed industry commentators too since it is expected that Abbey National mortgage customers taking out this option will not be left to face dramatically higher interest rates when the term ends, which is what is happening right now as the plethora of 2 year fixed rate mortgages come to an end.