Good news for those seeking a mortgage comes from the Abbey National, where fees on their flexible mortgage products will be GBP1,000 lower than they were at just GBP1,499.
The Abbey National flexible mortgage deals allow customers to offset their savings against their mortgage, pay more than is required and also take holidays from paying for periods of time. The benefits of such mortgages are supreme flexibility and the chance to clear a mortgage in a much shorter time than a regular one, saving many thousands of pounds in the process by paying less interest.
Although the flexible mortgage deals offered by the Abbey are very good ones there are question marks over how many people are actually buying property at the moment, so there may be a bigger market for them with existing homeowners who are coming off a fixed rate deal.
HBOS, owner of the Halifax amongst others, is to streamline its operation with the cutting of around 420 jobs and the deletion of one of its mortgage businesses.
The Halifax brand is well known for mortgages, being one of the biggest providers of home loans in the UK. This status means it will not see any changes to its operation, the cuts instead coming from other parts of the HBOS group. It appears that part of the problem was a duplication of efforts in relation to mortgage business, the streamlining aiming to reduce this and give each brand its area of expertise.
The job cuts by HBOS, which as already stated will not impact on the Halifax, will see most employees redeployed to other parts of the group, meaning that in real terms job losses should only be slight.
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.
