Homebuyers and brokers should ignore the “melodrama” around mortgage pricing and global politics with current market volatility likely to pass within weeks, according to Mortgageforce chief executive Kevin Duffy.
His comments come as lenders continue to reprice and withdraw mortgage products amid rising swap rates and geopolitical tension, moves that have fuelled speculation that borrowing costs could rise sharply again.
Several lenders have reduced product ranges in recent weeks, while average fixed rates have edged higher, prompting concern among borrowers planning purchases or remortgages this spring.
However, Duffy says that the reaction to recent events has been exaggerated, arguing that short-term market disruption is not unusual and does not necessarily signal a sustained rise in mortgage rates.
OPERATIONAL PRESSURES
Lenders often adjust pricing quickly when swap rates move but this can also reflect operational pressures rather than purely economic factors, particularly when application volumes increase and service levels come under strain.
He also suggested that wider political uncertainty, including tensions in the Middle East and the impact of US policy decisions on financial markets, has added to the sense of instability, even though the long-term outlook remains unclear.
KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON
Duffy told Property Soup: “The renowned baker Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes. But the thought cookies for digestion right now are from his namesake, Rudyard.
“Suffice to say, these are times for cool heads and rational thinking. If you believe the doom mongers on Sky TV, WW3 is weeks away, Spurs are to be relegated and mortgage rates are going to the moon.
“The melodrama on national TV over lenders pulling their products is exactly that. Whether you are a consumer or a mortgage broker, try to get past this sensationalism as my hunch is that in six weeks this hiatus will have passed.
“My advice to consumers especially is just to keep calm and carry on.”
“For what the general public may not know is that mortgage lenders have previously used the spectre of rising swap rates as a convenient justification for widening their profit margins and at the same time placing a handbrake on rampant application levels which are now hurting their service standards.
“My advice to consumers especially is just to keep calm and carry on.”
