This is good news for variable rate mortgage owners, but I guess a bit of a sickener for those with a fixed rate, as it looks unlikely that they will get any benefit from their fixed rate for quite a while. Of course, most new mortgages are fixed rate as the bank have no wish to pass on the benefits of the Bank of England base rate. This in itself is a topic worthy of a great deal of debate....
For those who are benefiting from a variable rate, my advice is to overpay your mortgage (subject to advice from your properly qualified advisor of course!!) if you can. I switched to a variable rate mortgage shortly before the financial crisis took hold, so my repayments are extremely low. However I have taken the step of deliberately paying a similar rate to what I was paying before the crisis in an effort to pay off more of the principal debt.
The uncertainty around what will happen to the rate is heightened by the uncertainty about the knock-on effects of Government cutbacks which must be made by this new administration.
The mood for now seems to be 'steady as she goes' as we launch our economic ship into uncharted and potentially stormy seas...
