Five-year mortgages gain sheen

Posted 2008-04-6

Consumers are increasingly warming to five-year fixed rate mortgage deals due to uncertainty in the current financial climate, it has been claimed.

New research from Abbey has found that of 1,000 mortgage borrowers, some 24 per cent said they would be most likely to opt for a five-year fixed deal if they had to remortgage tomorrow.

That figure is double where it stood just one month ago, indicating that anxieties over the property market have begun to take root.

And according to Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, director of Abbey Mortgages, consumer jitters are being fuelled in large part by a slurry of worrying reports about the mortgage market.

She noted in particular one recent report by MoneySupermarket.com which found that the availability of mortgage products has fallen a massive 60 per cent in the past seven months alone.

"Not too long ago borrowers felt that shopping around regularly was the way to get the best deal," Ms Audhlam-Gardiner began.

"Now homeowners faced with a dwindling number of mortgage deals seem keener then ever to lock themselves into a deal for longer than two years such as a five-year fix."

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