Home of Mortgages – the mortgage market is still open for business

Despite ongoing coronavirus woes, buyers can look to benefit from record low rates and the mortgage market remains open for business.

That is according to leading broker Home of Mortgages, which says that although the crisis has led to some lenders diverting resources to deal with existing customers requesting payment holidays, borrowers with deposits above 20%-40% of the value of the property can generally access deals as normal.

Meanwhile, borrowers with smaller deposits should also proceed as usual with applications as, even where lenders have limited certain deals, this is only expected to be for a short time while large numbers of people are requesting payment holidays.

“We are in a very unusual set of circumstances at the moment as we all try to get to grips with the stay at home guidelines,” says Michael O’Brien, managing director at Home of Mortgages.

“Lenders are not only having to deal with the challenges all businesses are facing but also with a large number of requests for mortgage payment holidays from existing customers. Some lenders have temporarily limited their lending to applicants with higher deposits, but remain open for business.”

O’Brien advises that people with lower deposits should still contact Home of Mortgages as these limits do not apply to all lenders and are likely to be in place for only a short time with others.

He adds: “If a borrower is likely to be able to obtain a better deal by waiting a short time to submit an application, this time can be used to gather all the documents needed.”

“Borrowers should remember that we are now seeing record low interest rates, following the Bank of England’s decision to cut the base rate to its lowest ever level of 0.1%.”