moneysupermarket.com: lenders' withdrawal of fixed-rate mortgages

Commenting on lenders’ withdrawal of fixed-rate mortgages, Louise Cuming, head of mortgages at moneysupermarket.com said: “It may seem like a rash decision to remove fixed rate deals from the market, but it probably would have happened anyway. Tuesday’s inflation announcement has simply brought it forward a few weeks. It all comes back to first-time buyers - without them the market stagnates. Fixed rates have to be the best advice for first time buyers because many have to borrow to their upper limits. Now those fixed rate products have been withdrawn we can expect lenders will soon announce a raft of new deals with increased fixed rates. This will surely impact on first-time buyers and, in turn, the market. In light of this, people might also begin to think twice about moving. It’s hard to see how the market won’t come to a standstill, or at least grind slowly to a halt.”