Virgin breaks 4% barrier

Virgin releasing a 10-year fixed at 3.99% is another step in the right direction, although clearly 10-year fixed rates are quite a niche area, as many people don't feel comfortable committing to a mortgage rate for that length of time. So while it is a great reduction, I'm hoping we will see a domino effect with 5-year and 2-year offerings.

Virgin has launched a 10-year fixed at 3.99% and I expect other lenders to reprice over the coming days on the back of it. This is great news for borrowers who wish to fix in for the long term. However, the early repayment charges will be steep so advice is always paramount.

If a 10-year fix works for you, this is good news overall. 10 years is a long time, though, and so much can happen so proper planning is required Things are definitely stabilising in the mortgage market, but there needs to be much more choice for clients before we switch to a 10-year simply due to rate.

This is a huge milestone having a lender breach fixed rates below 4%. Now that the flood gates have opened, we will only see more lenders looking to join the party as this price war starts to truly heat up. Hopefully this will feed into shorter term fixed rates in the weeks ahead.

Today's sub-4% mortgage product launch from Virgin is a sign of the times. Lenders are falling over themselves to maintain transaction volumes in a shrinking mortgage market, even at the expense of profit margins. The question is, will mortgage rates continue to fall? With the base rate likely rising to 3.75 or 4% later this week, I think it's more likely that rates will creep back up a little.

This is a decent product if you are planning on staying put for the next 10 years, but personally, I rarely know what I'm doing after breakfast so this also has the potential to be very costly if you decide on moving before the 10 years is up.