Mortgage market will see off General Election instability - expert's view

The mortgage market is resilient enough to endure temporary political uncertainty created by next month’s General Election.

That’s the view of Jonathan Samuels, chief executive of Octane Capital, who says that while mortgage rates have decreased across the board in the past six months, product availability has increased.

Octane’s recent analysis examined current rates and product availability across various sectors of the mortgage market, assessing changes over the past six months. The findings suggest that buyers are now in a stronger position to secure mortgages for property purchases.

The average mortgage rate for remortgaging has dropped by 0.68% in the last six months.

Home movers have experienced a 0.49% reduction in average mortgage rates, while first-time buyers have seen a decrease of 0.43%. Meanwhile first time buyers still face the highest mortgage rates, averaging 4.62%.

Landlords are benefiting the most from current market conditions, with the average buy to let mortgage rate falling by 1.11% to 3.33%, the largest reduction across all market segments.

In addition to lower rates, an increase in the number of available mortgage products has given borrowers greater choice. The number of mortgage products available to home movers has increased by 3.7% in the past six months, while remortgagers have seen a 6.6% rise.

First-time buyers now have 8.3% more mortgage products available, and landlords have enjoyed a 10% increase in product availability.

“We’ve seen six consecutive monthly increases with regards to mortgage approval figures and it’s fair to say that buyers today are in an even stronger position with both mortgage rates having fallen, while the range of products available has increased,” Samuels adds.