Should you be looking towards a fixed rate mortgage?
Over the last few months we have seen competition increase in the UK mortgage market which has led to a number of standard variable mortgage rates falling to very attractive levels. This has also impacted upon fixed rate mortgages which have also fallen over the last few months. So is it now the time to look towards switching from a standard variable rate mortgage to a fixed-rate mortgage?
Even though opinion is divided as to whether UK base rates will rise during 2010 and what impact this will have on mortgage rates, there is no doubt that the UK economy is not yet out of the doldrums. There are attractions for maintaining a standard variable rate mortgage (at least in the short term) and there are also attractions towards fixing a rate for some years to come. So which way would you fall?
The truth is that we all have varying financial backgrounds and financial situations at the moment. Therefore it is imperative that you take professional financial advice before looking at changing your mortgage arrangement because there may be other issues to consider aside from your mortgage payments and whether interest rates will rise in the short term. It will be interesting to see at which point standard variable rate mortgage holders decide to transfer to a fixed-rate and what rates they can lock into.
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