Headlines of interest rates on mortgages are misleading, as most people are still offered rates well below the 6.5 per cent often quoted, says Chris Sykes.
The technical director and senior mortgage broker at Private Finance says most of his clients are still being offered rates in the 5 per cent, and scaremongering about average rates is unhelpful as it further stagnates the market.
In July the average two-year fix was quoted by many media outlets as having reached a 15-year high of 6.66 per cent. There were also predictions of the Bank of England raising its base rate to 7 per cent, which could lift mortgage rates above 8 per cent.
But Sykes says: "In reality, I'm still submitting most of my cases in the 5 per cent. And I mean, granted some two-years are in the early, early 6 per cent, but the average rates that you read in the news and everything are average of all loan-to-value bands, adverse credit and quirky properties and debt consolidation.
"All of that all makes up the average, but the sort of average person, we're not in the middle of that average. We're probably going to a Santander or Nationwide or Halifax.
"So a lot of people are worried by the headlines that they see and the sort of unknown, and that really stagnates the property market in general. Especially if people aren't actually seeking advice of what's actually feasible."
A tough time
Private Finance is a London-based brokerage that operates throughout the UK. It's medium sized, directly authorised, and has about 40 staff of which about half are brokers working all across the country.
The firm likes to specialise in more complex cases and prides itself on the service it delivers to its clients.
Sykes says: "Often people say mortgages are the most stressful part of property buying process, but most of our clients say that the solicitors are the hardest part. Because we try and make it as easy as possible."
This service also means working late nights trying to secure mortgage rates before they are being pulled by the lender.
In the current market many lenders will give only short notice periods for pulling rates or products, leaving brokers to scramble for client files to complete applications.
"It's very stressful, because you'll get that email at like three o'clock in the afternoon. And then you have to go through basically all the cases you've quoted over the past couple of weeks, you will then have to disturb the client at work... or on a boat trip.
"And then that client might have to rush to get your documentation, sign forms, we might have missing bits of information such as full three-year address history.
