Mortgage competition heats up - but it's not all good

Nationwide are as bad as the rest, I don't think I can summon the energy to comment further. Shisters the lot of 'em.

Halifax "now in government control"??

Should that read public control or perhaps out of control. It is clear, once again, that the government are demonstrating their inability to control anything and that the "bankers" are running rings around them. Time I think for people to vote with their money and withdraw savings from the Halifax , another run on a UK bank might make someone in Westminster sit up and pay attention!!!

To me, mortgage rates are almost irrelevant. The thing that matters is the average price as a multiple of earnings.

On this basis, houses are still hugely overvalued and much more so than in the recession in the Eighties. Unless we see a return to borrowing at huge multiples of earnings (which wouldn't surprise me one jot, probably funded using taxpayers' money) the prices have to fall further.

Government meddling so far has ensured that the market is being kept artificially high, but it's all built on immensely shaky ground.

All Labour is able to do is put the country more and more in hock and has encouraged the same approach amongst the public, by completely failing to stop individuals being able to borrow more than they could realistically afford.

That's not to say that such individuals aren't to blame for getting themselves into massive, unsustainable debt, quite the contrary. But the government and banks have certainly played an equal role in the current mess. The worst thing is that the taxpayer has to foot the bill for all this failure and has to pay it to the people responsible.

Don't kick the Nationwide for making sure that it has a long term strategy to remain a viable alternative to the big banks. if a disproportionate amount of their loan book goes to the base mortgage rate at 2.50% they will either have to charge extra to new borrowers coming in or slash their savings rates even further. They're not a charity and they have to run the business for the benefit of ALL their members.

By the way the Halifax deal that pays the stamp duty is priced at 7.49% not as you quote so you get a one off payment to get ripped off for 5 years---my clients will not be heading in that direction thank you

To my mind it seems perfectly sensible to stop tracking the Bank of England base rate now it is at unprecedentedly and unexpectedly low levels. Interest rates are incredibly low - I mean, would you lend a stranger or even a friend £100 for a yr in order to get back £2.50? So you cannot kick the decent and reasonable banks like the Nationwide for having to change the terms of their mortgages in these unprecedented circumstances.

Hali's Irish pricing decision (i.e. at much lower margins than in UK) at least demonstrates that our biggest mortgage lender is prepared to meet the market and compete! even if it is the Irish market!

This could also be read in to their "free stamp duty" offering: a marketing ploy to get FTB's to refocus on the market and take action (especially as most FTB's outside London will be buying at below Stamp Duty thresholds).

Nationwide's move on the other hand, while understandable, is pretty cynical: they tried it before (dual rates) and had to back off.

I find it laughable that anyone could refer to a cashback mortgage as innovative - even if they market it cleverly bu saying it's aim is to help with stamp duty.

I'm only in my 30s - surely I can't be the only one to remember cashbacks from the 90s being aimed at covering people's stamp duty, solicitors costs etc.

That aside, there is a real silver lining to the Nationwide's unfortunate short term thinking.

The fact that we are returning to 90s style underwriting and pricing means that the fuel for the next bout of remortgages is being built up.

Assuming an improved credit market in 3-5 years the likes of the Nationwide will have to retain customers and the new rate will be easier to improve on in the market than the old BMR. Hence the need for advice in the future.

I take more comfort from the Woolwich offering a follow on rate based on BBR + 1.49% - if that is not accepting that the market will eventually turn and pricing has to be competitive for its day I do not know what is.

Beyond belief! Weak and sloppy Government control allowing the tax payer to be ripped off yet again by smoke and mirrors tricks to disguise the same old greed. Where is the transparent and honest approach we were promised? Shame on Halifax for the Dublin deal. Yes I agree that everybody should vote with their feet and show them just how fed up we all are with their contempt for the people that have come to their rescue. When will this Government wake up and get these people under control?

why is everyone up in arms about the banks trying to make a profit?

As major share holders in LBG, the

British public should be delighted that the bank they partly own is trying to attract new business in Dublin, and trying to scramble it's way back to profitability over here.

I suggest that people who want their homes provided by a charitable organization emigrate to an earthquake zone and hope Shelterbox comes along with a tent.

The rest of us should show less foolishness and hypocrisy in our reaction to the mortgage lenders attempts to run a profitable business.