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Remortgage windows

Journalist: Anna Sagar, Mortgage Solutions / Specialist Lending Solutions

ended 15. July 2023

Interested to hear about remortgage windows. The Mortgage Charter has said signatories should “have the chance to lock in a deal up to six months ahead”.

  1. What are average timeframes now? Do you think lenders could change them? 
  2. Are people approaching you earlier to refix their mortgage deals? 
  3. What would be an ideal timeframe/what would you like to see from lenders on this? 

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
I think this point is more for Product Transfers than remortgages specifically - and is what is already available from most lenders. Remortgage Offers are typically valid for 6 months anyway, whereas some lenders offer a Product Transfer 6 months in advance, such as Halifax and Nationwide. However, many only offer 3 or 4-month window of opportunity - and that shorter term could be quite a difference in rate if your only option is to stay with your current lender. We would love to see more lenders offer a 6-month window for Product Transfers, but the interpretation of the Charter as 'up to 6 months' is already in place for the vast majority of lenders.
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Stephen Perkins
Managing Director at Yellow Brick Mortgages
The key phrase in the Charter is "Up to". Some lenders are still not offering product transfers until 3 or 4 months before the end date of the existing interest rate product. Many mortgage lenders' mortgage offers on a remortgage are not valid for 6 months. So whilst brokers can often secure a rate 6 months before product expiry, they cannot review all the available options the client will have at this time. It would certainly be beneficial if clients could product transfer and or have a mortgage offer for a remortgage 6 months before their rate ends to give them peace of mind as early as possible.
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Elliott Culley
Director at Switch Mortgage Finance
We continue to advocate for clients to look at their remortgage 6 months in advance. Currently, a lot of mortgage holders have approached the current market with a wait-and-see approach. Some will be regretting this as they could have got a cheaper deal if they had looked at the 6-month point. For example, rates in May were far more favourable and if your remortgage was in October/November you could have locked in a much better rate at that point.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
The vast majority of lenders I come across now have a six-month product transfer window, which is the trigger in most cases to then do a full mortgage review to see if a client is best to remain with their current lender or move elsewhere. Whilst I had a few clients approach me before six months, having been concerned at some of the reports they have seen in certain parts of the press or online, generally six months works well. For the most part, clients are responding to me inviting them to review their mortgage, which I try to do as close to six months before their deal is due to expire as I can.
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Joe Stallard
Director and Advisor at House and Holiday Home Mortgages
As far as we're concerned, six months for a mortgage window is long enough and works for now. They seem to range from 3-6 months and we're definitely seeing more clients contacting us sooner than ever before. This is a marked sea change because they’re normally hard to get hold of. One of the things we've noticed is how people are paying close attention to what's going on with their mortgages and the wider situation. Must be the media attention. So, now they’re proactively calling!