Mortgage products ‘not available for long’

Posted 2008-05-27

Home buyers have an average of 11 days to decide whether a mortgage is right for them before it is taken off the market, it has emerged.

Research by Moneyfacts.co.uk highlights that this is a drop of 19 days from one year ago, meaning that mortgage buyers now have less time to make one of the most important decisions of their lives.

In April when the Bank of England base rate was lowered by 0.25 per cent some products were only available for six days, according to the sites Mortgage Metric.

The website also noted a fall in the number of products available on the mortgage market, with a drop from more than 15,000 12 months ago to 3,814 currently being recorded.

Stating that this was bad news for the 1.4 million individuals expected to come off fixed-rate mortages this year, a spokesperson for the website added: "Unfortunately, until the current market readjustment is complete, the ability to time the mortgage market has become more of a lottery than an art, with the majority of todays better deals expected to have disappeared by this time next week."

This follows news from Abbey that most mortgage buyers would opt for a five-year fixed-rate deal.

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