Remortgage News - August 2005
How to cope with the soaring cost of owning your own home
LONDON (Citywire) - Rising council tax bills, higher fuel costs and increased mortgage payments combined to push up the cost of owning and running a home by 5 percent in 2003-2004, more than four times the rate of increase in inflation.
Higher council tax bills accounted for more than 30 percent of the total increase in housing costs in 2003/04, the single biggest increase during the year. Annual housing costs, at 5,948 pounds, make up 23 percent of total household spending by owner occupiers and are one-third more than household spending on the essential items of food and drink, clothing, education and healthcare.
The figures compiled by mortgage lender Halifax are based on data from the Office of National Statistics. And things are not going to get much better. Halifax predicts at 6 percent increase in the cost of running a home in 2004-2005 and a further 2 percent in 2005-2006.
Apathy costs homeowners thousands
LONDON (Reuters) - Homeowners who fail to move their mortgage to a new provider once their introductory rate has expired are losing thousands of pounds each year, say leading mortgage providers.
Bradford & Bingley said on Tuesday that homeowners on a standard variable rate (SVR) for an average 100,000-pound mortgage could be wasting as much as 1,800 pounds a year by failing to switch to one of the current market-leading rates. Mortgage broker John Charcol said the annual saving could be more than 2,000 pounds, or the equivalent of a near-10 percent pay rise for someone earning 25,000 pounds a year.
Figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) released earlier this month showed a steady decline in remortgage levels, to 39 percent of total mortgages in June from 50 percent at the start of the year.
"Given the popularity of remortgaging over recent years and the fact many homeowners are increaingly rate aware, I would have expected remortgage levels to have been higher this year as hundreds of thousands of borrowers come to the end of their cheap fixed rates," said Duncan Pownall, mortgage development manager for Bradford & Bingley. "However this is just not proving to be the case and borrowers are losing out on thousands of pounds a year."
Britannia remortgage tracker launched
Adfero Ltd. Britannia Building Society has today announced a new two-year discount tracker remortgage package.
The new package offers the bank base rate of 4.5 per cent, reflecting a reduction of ten basis points on the original product, and the loan to value (LTV) is up to 95 per cent.
The remortgage tracker comes with an arrangement fee of £349, but there is no administration fee and standard valuation is free.
Commenting on the strengths of the product, Tim Franklin, of Britannia, said: "This new product at bank base rate for the first two years coupled with the additional benefits, makes the discount tracker product very attractive to customers looking to remortgage to Britannia."
The remortgage tracker will be available to customers from August 15th.