mortgage market continuing to contract

Still lenders out there – but do your homework

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The mortgage market is continuing to contract with fewer deals available and lenders tightening their criteria and being very fussy about who they will lend money to.

Despite this, there are still mortgage companies out there willing to lend money. It is just a matter of matching your own personal financial circumstances to the deals that are available and checking that you fulfil all of a lender’s requirements before submitting your application.

Now is not the time to be applying to half a dozen lenders in the hope that one of them will say yes. All this approach does is increase the number of credit searches that show up on your file, which is not a good thing.

The best way to be successful in applying for a mortgage is to do your homework first and ask your mortgage adviser to check with the lender that you fit all its criteria before you submit an application.

As far as rates go, there are still deals with low rates available but be sure to compare the arrangement fees and exit penalties as well and take these into account before making a final decision on which particular deal is best for you.

The lowest rate is not always the best and all of the features of the mortgage deal should be taken into consideration.

Some of the lowest rates available at the moment include:

This is an exclusive deal that is only available through some mortgage advisers. There is a booking fee of £1,499 and the penalties are £225 plus 4% of the balance until the end of the fixed period.

The maximum amount you can borrow is up to 4.2 times your individual salary or 4.2 times your joint salary if there are two applicants.

Tim Twiddy is managing director of Atlantic Investors. For more information, call 0800 163 659.