Paragon reports remortgage surge, with an emphasis on fixed-rate deals
Paragon Mortgages’ latest Financial Advisors Confidence Tracking (FACT) Index report identified a shift in mortgage borrower ratios in 2016, with remortgage business increasing in each quarter.
Based on interviews with 201 mortgage intermediaries, the report reveals that 39% of all mortgages handled by advisers between October and December were remortgage deals, an increase of 7% on Q1. This was a 4% rise compared with the fourth quarter of 2015.
The increase in remortgage activity echoes industry statistics published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), which recorded 34,700 remortgage loans worth £5.8 billion for remortgage in December, representing year-on-year increases of 13% in volume and 14% in value.
In terms of interest-rate type, there is a clear preference among borrowers for fixed-rate mortgages, which accounted for 83% of all cases during the fourth quarter of 2016 and has increased year-on-year since 2010. Tracker mortgages remain a distant second at 14%, representing little change over the course of 2016.
John Heron, managing director at Paragon Mortgages, says: “Our survey data shows increased levels of activity over 2016, driven particularly by borrowers remortgaging to better rates. These are as likely to be longer-term fixes as they are short-term deals, which bodes well for customer resilience in an uncertain market.”
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