Available mortgage products are down from last year (Source: www.themortgagelibrary.co.uk)
2022, specifically the last few months of 2022, has been a challenging year for everyone and as mortgage professionals we have seen first-hand how 2022 has affected people’s finances. A series of rather disastrous financial decisions made by the UK government and several unavoidable outside factors has meant that interest rates for borrowing across all platforms has sky-rocketed and things like mortgage products have either become more expensive or completely disappeared from the lending market.
Market research carried out by Octane Capital has shown that compared to this time last year, available mortgage product choice has dropped by 41%. This to us is no real shock as we have seen a mass exodus of lenders and products over the last couple of months since the Bank of England boosted their base rate. Although the market is starting to calm down and lenders are returning to the market, there is still a void waiting to be filled in many areas of the lending world as some products were completely wiped from the face of the Earth.
What Do The Figures Show About Available Mortgage Products?
Octane’s research shows that at the moment, there are an around 5,398 different mortgage products currently available to homebuyers. This is broken down into 2,631 first-time buyer products and 2,569 specifically for home movers. Those looking to remortgage however, only have a choice of around 2,302 products which is rather low considering that 52% of homeowners will need to remortgage within the next 2 years.
Compared to November 2021, these figures are significantly different across the board. It almost seems like a lifetime ago, but a lot has changed in 12 short months. The data shows that in 2021, the total number of products available was around 7,611. First time buyers had 3,394 mortgage products available to them, a 29% change, and home movers had access to around 3,365 a 31% difference. And finally remortgage products once stood at 3,154 a huge 37% difference.
Obviously, the biggest group impacted from these figures are people looking for remortgage products which unfortunately at the moment are scarce and in comparison, to rates last year, significantly higher in most cases. So, where do borrowers, specifically people needing to remortgage, go from here? Well, there isn’t a magic wand that we can wave to add more remortgage products to the market unfortunately. Lenders are returning and adding more and more products every day, but it is going to take some time and it may be a couple of years before we get back to more normal looking mortgage products.
What Can You Do If You Need To Remortgage?
But what you can do is make sure that your mortgage is comfortable and manageable until that time comes. That means getting ahead of things nice and early by speaking to a mortgage advisor who has access to the whole of market. Having a mortgage broker who can access every available mortgage product on the market is a great thing to be connected to. At Oportfolio mortgages, we have access to over 90 different mortgage lenders and our job is to get our clients the best deal available to them, for their circumstances.
If you go to a broker who does not have access to all of the available lenders and products or you simply try to remortgage directly from your own bank, you are really limiting yourself and will more than likely end up paying much more on your remortgage that you should be. Our advisors will help find you the best mortgage products that are manageable for you for the time being. They will then be there to support you up until more competitive products are available in the future and will help you to switch your product again when rates have come back down.
Calling our team to discuss your situation and your current mortgage is free of charge so why not give us a call or drop us a quick email today.
