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Summary of March 2023 Budget

A ‘back to work’ budget was the theme presented by the Chancellor with measures aimed to encourage the 8 million or so economically inactive back into work. Things aren’t as bleak as forecast last November mainly due to falling energy prices and higher tax revenues. This will reduce Government borrowing this year and next by […]

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Mortgage Reviews 2

This blog follows the one which I posted on the 1 February 2023 concerning those customers with mortgage deals which will end in 2023.  Most have fixed rate arrangements in place and the new rate will inevitably be higher than they have been used to.  Firstly a rate update.  Bank of England base rate(BBR) is […]

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Mortgage Reviews

About 1,800,000 borrowers have fixed rate mortgage deals which will end in 2023.  The bad news is that rises in Bank of England base rate will inevitably mean that any new mortgage deal secured will be at a higher rate than borrowers have been used to.  Bank of England base rate is currently 3.5% and […]

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Mortgage Market Chaos

The combination of the increase in Bank of England base rate to 2.25% on the 22 September and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini budget on the 23 September have resulted in mortgage lenders withdrawing products with little or no notice and either leaving the market for a short period or launching new higher-priced replacements.  My article this […]

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When it comes to market volatility, sometimes it’s best to stay put

The coronavirus pandemic and the recent escalation of military conflict in Ukraine have caused significant volatility in financial markets. Global stock markets plunged in early 2020 as COVID-19 swept the world, before recovering as governments and central banks launched unprecedented stimulus and, later, vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 were developed. As economies came out of […]

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Interest Rate Rise

On Thursday 3 February 2022, the Bank of England increased the base rate from 0.25% to 0.50%. This is the second increase since December 2021. What is the base rate and why does this matter? The base rate, set by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, is the main driver of rates on mortgages […]

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Green Mortgages

Based upon my recent research there are seven lenders currently offering green mortgages.  This number will grow, I suspect, because lenders will be keen to encourage borrowers either to purchase properties with improved energy performance characteristics or because they wish to encourage borrowers to improve older housing stock where such energy performance characteristics are worse.  […]

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