BoE: Rates at 6-year low

13th December 2013

The average rate on mortgages taken out between July and September fell to the lowest level since 2007, according to statistics from the BoE.

The average fixed-rate mortgage fell to 3.4% while variable rates slipped to 3% with the combined rate of all new loans sitting at 3.32%. The proportion of mortgages granted on a high loan-to-income ratio has also hit its highest rate since 2007, with 27.2% of joint-income households lent more than three times their combined earnings and 10.5% of single-income households offered over four times their income. Ed Stansfield, the chief property economist at Capital Economics, said: "This may be a sign that a degree of speculative behaviour is returning."

Source: The Times   11/13/2013