"To say the mortgage market has been an enigma of late would be an understatement of epic proportions. With news, most of it negative, emanating on a daily basis, borrowers could be forgiven for not knowing whether to fix, track, cap or offset. However, with news from the Bank of England on inflation revealing a marked increase, and indeed an expectation of an equally marked decrease to come, it now seems highly probable that Bank Rate will fall sharply in 2009. As such, any borrower who does not require the absolute security of a fixed rate mortgage would simply be crackers not to take a tracker at the moment," said Drew Wotherspoon of Charcol.co.uk
"Trackers are currently priced at around 0.3% better than their fixed rate counterparts, so borrowers will immediately see less coming from their wage packet if they arranged a new tracker now over a fixed rate. Yet with at least one per cent predicted to disappear from Bank Rate, this gap will widen significantly over the coming months.
"It is also worth noting that there will be a time when fixed rates are the right product for most of the market. Therefore, borrowers may want to look at trackers that offer a drop lock option, allowing them to drop and lock into a fixed rate at any time should they wish to."
If you DO need a fixed rate – hold on for as long as possible
Wotherspoon continued: "The good news for those who need a fixed rate is that these are also coming down as well. However, if borrowers can wait a little longer, we would expect fixed rates to come down even further. The best way to ensure you get the very best mortgage for you is to use a whole of market mortgage broker who can keep an eye on the market each and every day and then arrange the home loan that is just right for you."
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