News

Jun 11, 2023

Mortgage turbulence continues as HSBC pulls deals; UK house prices ‘to fall 10%’

A quick recap. Ther has been turbulence in the UK home loans market after the

A quick recap.

Ther has been turbulence in the UK home loans market after the country's biggest bank, HSBC, temporarily withdrawn mortgage deals until next Monday. Its "new business" residential and buy-to-let products were removed last night, so it can "stay within operational capacity".

They were expected to return on Monday, potentially priced at higher interest rates.

An HSBC spokesperson said:

"To ensure that we can stay within our operational capacity and meet our customer service commitments, we occasionally need to limit the amount of new business we can take each day.

"Our broker products will be available again on Monday, June 12."

However, it has now emerged that the deals could be back on the market for a little longer, today.

The i explains:

In an email to brokers this afternoon, the lender said it was reinstating them for a "limited time" which i understands to be from 3pm to 5pm on Friday afternoon, although they could be pulled earlier if demand is high.

It added that once removed there would "be no products available until Monday 12 June".

Brokers were unhappy that the original move came with little notice. HSBC originally gave about four hours’ notice, only to bring the shutters down after two hours after a rush of homeowners trying to secure rates.

Nationwide, the building society, increased some of its fixed mortgage rates today by up to 0.25 percentage points.

Mortgage rates continued to rise across the market today. The average rate on a two-year mortgage deal across the range of loan-to-value ratios rose on Friday to 5.82%, compared with 5.30% a month ago, financial data provider Moneyfacts reported.

There are also warnings that house prices will tumble in the next two years, with credit ratings agency Moody's forecasting a 10% decline.

In a new report, Moody's said:

"Persistently high inflation and the recent spike in lending rates will trigger a correction in the UK housing market."

Estimated disposable income of an avg mortgage holder (after paying mortgage costs) will shrink by 5% if typical rates remain at around 5%. Many will be able to absorb this but lower affordability & Buy-to-let landlords may result in sales influencing 🏠prices ⬇️ @MoodysInvSvc pic.twitter.com/UR10KX98AS

Economic research company Capital Economics warned that a large number of fixed-rate mortgage deals are set to expire this year, leaving homeowners vulnerable to the impact of interest rate hikes – and driving up the total cost of servicing debt.

Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at Allianz, said the turbulence in the UK mortgage market is being driven by high inflation, and expectations that the Bank of England will continue to raise interest rates to fight it.

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