How Worse Is Mortgage Chaos and What Can We Do? Tim Podcast

A sharp rise in interest rates has pushed average 2- and 5-year fixed-rate mortgages past the 6% barrier.

This was unthinkable a year ago when there were 50 mortgage deals in the market at less than 1%.

In a belated attempt to catch up with inflation, the Bank of England set the benchmark interest rate from 0.1% last December to 2.25% now. Further up from here.

But the big jump in mortgage rates last month was sparked by the prime minister’s inadequate mini-budget and the UK’s need to borrow more and more to fund it. It was confusing.

So what happens next after mortgage rates? What should people who need fixing do now? Will this drive home prices down?

In this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost, Helen Crane, and Simon Lambert dive into the mortgage market to see what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what borrowers can do about it.

What if you plan to buy a home and a variable rate mortgage is really the solution?

They answer these questions and more.

Plus, while rising interest rates are bad for mortgage borrowers, they’re good news for savers who have been hungry for the right deal for years. He’s knocking on the door at 5% for maximum fixed-rate savings, but how high will the savings rate go?

The ill-fated mini-budget also resulted in the abolition of the 45p tax rate, which itself was abolished this week as Kwasi Kwarteng made a squeaky U-turn. Nonetheless, Simon has some ideas for lowering taxes for the middle class.

Finally, a reader wrote to This is Money telling them that some letters were written by rock stars who died young in the 1960s and could be worth £20,000. ?

For that matter, who is the mysterious rock star?