Some encouraging news in the mortgage market...
First Direct has started selling mortgages again to new customers, six weeks after it took a break.
It stopped offering them on 1 April after being deluged by new applicants as the credit crunch and the lack of available mortgages began to bite.
First Direct (part of the HSBC banking group) was the first mortgage lender to pull to withdraw its entire mortgage range to avoid being swamped by new business, but it said it could now handle new applications after clearing its backlog.
Chris Pilling, First Direct's chief executive, said his staff had processed a year's worth of applications in just three months:
"Last month we took the bold decision to withdraw from mortgage sales to non-customers to allow us to process the huge number of enquiries we had received. We've now assessed all the loan applications outstanding from 1 April and earlier and let everyone know the outcome.".
More recently though,
HSBC has been taking a big share of the market for new
mortgages though its
Rate matcher offer.
This has been pitched at people who are trying to move their mortgages from other lenders, such as the Northern Rock. It offers to match their expiring fixed rates and, according to the bank, has attracted four times the number of enquiries that it would normally get. The deal has been extended to the end of June.
In addition, the Halifax has become the latest big lender to cut the interest rates on some of its mortgages. It plans to reduce some offers by 0.15%, but only for existing borrowers seeking to remortgage.
Last week, both the Abbey and the Nationwide, made small cuts to the interest rates on some of their mortgages.
These were slightly encouraging ripples in the UK mortgage market, which has shrunk dramatically because of the ongoing credit crunch.
But are they enough?
What do you think needs to happen in the mortgage market to see it improve?
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