New from the Natwest Bank is a three year tracker mortgage that, as well as being free of fees, has a step down interest rate that reduces each year.
For customers looking at a remortgage there will be no set up fees, valuation or legal fees said a Natwest Bank spokesman. In addition it will offer customers the chance to move to a different Natwest mortgage (fixed rates only) should they feel it will be better value. This option is open to customers after three months.
A Natwest Bank spokesman said that this new step down mortgage they are offering will be met warmly by customers who are looking for a simple and straightforward deal.
The monthly review of house prices provided by the Nationwide Building Society has shown another fall in house prices for June, though much less than it was in May.
House prices in June fell by less than one percent, compared with a drop of 2.5 percent in May. Although this is still a decrease in property prices it is at a much steadier rate which is an easier situation to deal with than the sharp drops seen before. The Nationwide Building Society chief economist noted that although the average house costs about GBP11,500 less than it did this time last year, compared with two years ago it is still 4 percent higher, and 9 percent higher when looking at a three year gap.
As the market stands then it is still in quite healthy shape for most homeowners who bought a couple of years ago or more and even then, as the Nationwide Building Society would point out, property is still an excellent investment over the longer term.
According the the Alliance and Leicester mortgage department there are around 3.25 million homeowners who would like to move house in the coming year.
This appears also to drive the move to home improvements, although that is also being pushed on by those who feel that they will be unable to move and so are improving their homes to make them better suited to their current requirements. The Alliance and Leicester found that around 20 percent of homeowners are making home improvements in order to make their property more attractive to buyers whilst half of them are doing it to avoid the issues associated with selling.
One the key areas people want to improve, said the Alliance and Leicester, is the number of bedrooms, always a key issue, especially with families. This is one of the biggest reasons for moving, especially as it can be very costly or totally impractical to add a bedroom to many properties.