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Festive lull or firing on all cylinders?

ended 08. December 2023

With mortgage rates dropping on an almost daily basis, how does this December compare to last? Are you busier than usual for this time of the year? Are lower rates and the growing sense that house prices may have bottomed out (or not be far off the bottom) bringing buyers out of their shells? Across what demographic of buyer is demand particularly strong, and where is it less so? Issuing this late morning so fairly tight deadline. 

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Stephen Perkins
Managing Director at Yellow Brick Mortgages
Despite predictions to the contrary, we remain busy with a steady flow of enquiries. The Christmas slowdown has not arrived yet. With rates reducing and confidence returning to the market with the feeling rates have peaked we will be finishing 2023 on a high.
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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
We are busier than normal for December and have a fair mix of remortgage, purchases and first time buyers. Interestingly I have submitted a few buy to let and activity is picking up there. What has taken a significant amount of time is the actioning rate reductions on business already submitted.
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Platinum
Elliott Culley
Director at Switch Mortgage Finance
Positive news on rates breathes new life into the mortgage market. Whereas last year was all about rates going up, this Christmas there is a renewed optimism. We are seeing a pick up in first-time buyers, some of whom are returning after putting their plans on hold earlier in the year.
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Premium
Samuel Gee
Director at Manning Gee Investments Limited
First time buyers are still as strong as ever, mainly because even with the significant interest rate rises, a mortgage is cheaper than renting in Bristol where most of our clients are based, particularly when it's a couple, where rental is generally more costly than ownership. We are also seeing demand from portfolio landlords who are capital raising for further purchases which is interesting considering the dynamic; they are in for the long term and see the benefit of buy to let, however now doesn't seem to be the time for first-time landlords. Aside of this, product transfers have generally been the way forward this year rather than remortgages for most existing clients and the reducing rates are certainly not reducing our workload, and keeping up with the daily rate changes is challenging., especially when we need to rebroke deals that have already been agreed.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
This December compared to 2022 is busy, with quite a lot of new activity coming in. The fixed mortgage rates falling to more acceptable levels after the recent two Bank of England pauses has certainly helped in this. We are mainly busy with remortgages for increased borrowing, including staircasing to purchase more shares in Shared Ownership properties, there is also quite a lot of First-Time-Buyer activity around - which usually at this time of year delay until the New Year takes hold.