A&L withdraws two-year fix
by Gill Montia
Alliance & Leicester is withdrawing its two-year fixed-rate mortgage because demand has outstripped supply.
Richard Taylor, head of mortgages at the bank, says: “Over the past few days we have seen a high demand for our 4.99% two-year fixed-rate product and therefore we have taken the decision to remove it from the range.”
According to financial website, MoneyFacts.co.uk, the number of mortgage products available across residential and buy-to-let markets has declined from 7,726 to 5,700 in the past month alone.
However, Firstrung, the fist-time buyer mortgage specialist, believes that this is not necessarily bad news for its customers.
Paul Holmes, operations director of Firstrung, argues that with 60% of mortgage products having disappeared from the market in the past year, house prices will inevitably fall.
He explains: “The cheap and readily available credit has gone so there’s only one place for house prices to go and that’s to fall quite dramatically.”
He sees first-time buyers as not only benefiting from the falling price of existing housing stock but also gaining bargains from housing developers desperate to attract buyers.
Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums
Story link: A&L withdraws two-year fix
Add to Bookmarks:
Related financial stories to: A&L withdraws two-year fix
- Abbey pessimistic over 25-year fixed-rate loans
- C&G withdraws 100% mortgage as deposits rise all round
- New mortgage approvals decline 66% year-on-year
- New mortgage lending falls 69% year-on-year
- Advantage withdraws from mortgage market
- 71% fewer mortgages compared with one year ago
- Nationwide launches 25-year fixed-rate mortgage
- Abbey withdraws 100% mortgages
- House prices fall 10.9% year-on-year
- C&G withdraws tracker loans in response to base rate cut
Previous: « Northern Rock to reveal huge write-downs
Next: House prices fall by 0.2% despite rise in activity »
Visited 979 times, 2 so far today