HSBC re-enters the mortgage market in style
After a period of reflection during which the vast majority of HSBC's mortgage rates were in line and not necessarily competitive, the company is now looking to the future. HSBC is now offering a 90% mortgage at a rate of just 4.99% which is a full 1% better than the next best offer good in the market place (from Yorkshire Bank). Is this the turning point that many have waited for?
Some time ago HSBC put aside up to £1 billion for new mortgage arrangements with a 90% loan to value ratio. Like so many UK banking operations they had appeared slow to come forward with the funding but this appears to have changed over the last few days. While the £1 billion low deposit mortgage fund will come in very useful the group hopes to agree around £15 billion worth of mortgages during 2009. This is in fact twice the level the company was operating at in the boom times of 2007.
The more competition we see in the UK mortgage market the more chance that investors will step forward and property prices will start to stabilise. Funding has been a significant issue for many with first-time buyers effectively blackballed for some time and unable to obtain any significant finance.
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