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Virgin Money Launch New Fixed Deals

Journalist: Justin Moy, Contributing Editor

ended 04. April 2024

Virgin Money has just announced a series of product changes for both Buy-to-let and Residential products, with some minor price changes on existing deals. Newspage asked brokers for their thoughts on these changes, and whether they will make much impact on current cases, and future demand. Their views are below.

7 responses from the Newspage community

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Katy Eatenton
Mortgage & Protection Specialist at Eatenton Finance
Another lender decreasing and increasing at the same time. Whilst good news for buy-to-let borrowers, it’s still not great for homeowners.
When will we see a lender take the bull by the horns and start following swap rates and passing on some decent rate reductions?
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Dariusz Karpowicz
Director at Albion Financial Advice
Seeing Virgin Money adjust its rates, particularly making Buy-to-let deals more appealing, is a step in the right direction. While such changes are unlikely to dramatically shift the landscape, they signal good news for borrowers looking for competitive options. These minor but positive adjustments might not cause a market-wide stir, but they could well bolster Virgin Money's standing, attracting a closer look from both new and existing customers evaluating their mortgage choices. In a market that values every little edge, moves like these could enhance Virgin Money's appeal and slightly nudge future demand their way.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
Rate increases of 0.03% and 0.05%. Are lenders really running their businesses to such tight margins now that they have to pull and replace deals for such tiny fluctuations? The cost to the lender itself, their broker partners, and the various software houses that these changes will impact on is quite high for such a tiny change. It's a little troubling that lenders are creating these costs across the industry for such a small rate increase, especially given that most lenders have been reporting record profits.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
Some interesting deals here from Virgin, lowering prices on the buy-to-let range to attract business and some well-priced longer-term remortgage options. With many of the mainstream lenders struggling with low volumes, we could see improved competition within the high street, for homebuyers and the lower-risk borrowers with higher equity or deposits.
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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
A real mixed bag of changes here from Virgin although always good to see rates starting with a 4 in the current climate.
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Ben Perks
Managing Director at Orchard Financial Advisers
Virgin have released a new suite of products but I'm not exactly punching the air with delight. In fairness, they've made an effort to reduce in some areas but have had to increase in others, which is a sign of the times and reflects the turbulent nature of swap rates presently. The bigger issue for me when it comes to product rates is the lack of incentive to build equity in your home. This has been a problem with all lenders over the past 18 months, but if we look at the latest Virgin offering there is only a 0.25% swing between 80% Loan to Value and 60% on Buy To Let rates. ‘Pre-Truss’, every 5% equity or deposit you had would gain you access to a better rate, which rewarded savers and homeowners alike. Lenders, please address this question: how can such safe lending at 60% or below only make you 0.25% better off? There must be greater disparity in this area.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
Any decreases in rates at the moment are a godsend. Well done Virgin Money, now aka Nationwide. A lot of lenders are sitting on the fence at the moment and simply increasing the period of their previously issued fixed rates despite there being good reason for drops in rates. Some say this is to bank even more record profits.