Homeowners are facing fees of up to £5,000 to take out a mortgage. A devastating report released yesterday shows that the average cost has almost doubled in a year. Interest rates charged by banks have also gone up. Separate Government figures out yesterday brought further bad news in that house prices are falling at their fastest rate since records began. After all the panic in the mortgage market, people may be tempted to grab the best headline rate deal but the fees must also be taken into consideration. HSBC charges up to £5,000 for its recently introduced ‘Rate Matcher’ deal, which lets homeowners whose current fixed-rate deal is about to expire get the same rate with HSBC for another two years. The mortgage meltdown continued yesterday with the number of deals available falling to just over 4,000 from 15,599 last summer.
Tags: arrangement fees, fixed rate, House prices, HSBC, mortgage, rate matcher, remortgage