The latest offer in the mortgage market comes from Lloyds TSB which has introduced a new Airmiles mortgage.
The Lloyds TSB mortgage is not as novel as it sounds, the Airmiles being provided for taking out the mortgage, customers are not able to pay it off using them. The three tear fixed rate offer gives customers 50 Airmiles when signing up plus a further 6,000 when it is completed. The interest rate on the mortgage begins at 5.89 percent depending on applicant circumstances.
As a spokeswoman from Lloyds TSB said, this new mortgage combines a good rate of interest, a decent length fixed term and also a practical and useful reward that customers can use.
The largest lender in the UK, the Halifax, is cutting some of its mortgage interest rates for new customers as of today. This is the third mortgage rate cut the Halifax has announced this month.
Sixteen different mortgage deals will see cuts to their rates, with some being reduced by up to 0.3 percent, helping new mortgage customers get into a property by reducing their monthly repayments. A Halifax spokesman explained that they were keeping up with recent changes in interest rates by other lenders, ensuring they are competitive. 2 year fixed rate mortgage rates for example were unchanged since they had been reduced only a week ago.
In a market where property sales are down by about half compared with last year and mortgage approvals are down by over two thirds it remains to be seen whether these changes will significantly impact on the housing market, though the Halifax will surely be hoping it does.
The Nationwide Building Society housing data for April reveals that house prices fell by just over one percent during April, taking them to a lower price point than the same time last year.
This latest house price fall takes the market to a position where, for the first time in ten years, there has been a year on year decrease. A Nationwide Building Society spokesman thought that the falling price of property showed how lack of affordability and more difficult access to mortgages was really pressing the market.
They also went on to say that, with the market falling as it has been doing it may prompt further base rate cuts by the Bank of England. The Nationwide Building Society figures show a steep fall in property transactions over the last six months or so and this latest data suggests something really needs to be done to stimulate activity once more.
