Brokers laud the lender for providing 48 hours' notice
Coventry Building Society has announced that it is increasing the rates of its residential and buy-to-let mortgages.
The lender will be closing products at 8pm on Thursday, June 15, and will launch new products the next day, June 16, at 8am.
Residential fixed rates, including offset, interest-only, and offset interest-only excluding green further advance rates, will be increased, as well as buy-to-let and portfolio BTL fixes.
All residential and buy-to-let trackers will be closed.
“It was only last Friday that Coventry announced they were increasing all their residential fixed rate products,” noted Graham Cox, founder of SelfEmployedMortgageHub.com. “Now here we are, only three working days later and they've been forced to increase them again due to the seemingly inexorable daily rise in UK gilt yields and swap rates.
“But thumbs up to Coventry for giving 48 hours’ notice. If only other lenders would take note, it would make life much easier for brokers and much fairer for consumers.”
Gary Boakes, director at Verve Financial, said that with the market in a state of flux again, it was inevitable that lenders were going to be increasing their rates like some had already done in the past several weeks.
Like Cox, Boakes commended Coventry for “finding a balance between doing that and giving potential new customers and brokers enough time to secure rates.”
Brokers have been calling on lenders to provide a minimum notice of 24 hours before discontinuing any mortgage product. They launched a new broker group on Tuesday to take on the 24 Hour Product Withdrawal Pledge campaign.
“With current market conditions, rate increases are unavoidable for most lenders as they all need to maintain a profitable business model,” said Jamie Lennox, director at Dimora Mortgages.
“We do, however, have to take our hats off to the decision-makers at Coventry as yet again they are giving 48 hours’ notice of the withdrawal, allowing a reasonable time for brokers to secure deals and consumers to consider their options without feeling forced into a corner.”
Lennox, one of the initiators of the campaign, urged other lenders “to follow in Coventry’s footsteps and back the #24hourpledge,” adding that the mutual “can clearly demonstrate they can maintain a profitable business model without the detriment to the customer.”
Want to be regularly updated with mortgage news and features? Get exclusive interviews, breaking news, and industry events in your inbox – subscribe to our FREE daily newsletter. You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
