The average rate on a two-year fixed deal was 4.83% at the start of the conflict, but rose to a peak a week ago of 5.90%, according to financial information service Moneyfacts.<\/p>\n
That has now dropped to 5.87%, with more lenders expected to follow recent rate cuts, potentially bringing it down further, albeit not to pre-war levels. <\/p>\n
Adam French, from Moneyfacts, said the situation in the Middle East was crucial.<\/p>\n
“Markets have welcomed the reported reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. This strengthens the view that mortgage pricing may have peaked,” he said.<\/p>\n
“However, recent volatility shows how quickly pricing can shift again.”<\/p>\n
Jo Jingree, from advice firm Mortgage Confidence, said: “Anyone who has secured a rate in the last week or two now may be able to improve on it. <\/p>\n
“For anyone who has been waiting for reductions, now might be the time to secure a rate. Although there is a chance rate reductions will continue, the situation is far from stable and waiting further could be a risk.”<\/p>\n
Financial experts said that, with uncertainty still part of the picture, borrowers needed to build a financial buffer in case of future changes. Katrina Horstead, director of Versed Financial, suggested first-time buyers:<\/p>\n
Focus less on trying to time the market and more on what is affordable and sustainable<\/p>\n
Look at how their budget would cope if rates were to rise again, even modestly<\/p>\n
Get advice early in order to move with confidence when the opportunity arises<\/p>\n
While there are about 1,000 fewer mortgage deals on the market than before the war, there are still thousands to choose from, and lenders are offering bigger loans than previously to new buyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The average rate on a two-year fixed deal was 4.83% at the start of the conflict, but rose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-536913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}