Interest rate decision not all doom and gloom

While homeowner's initial reaction to yesterday's (January 10th) decision by the Bank of England to hold interest rates at 5.5 per cent may have been negative, the situation is not as bad as it first appears.

That's the message from Gary Brook of Leeds Building Society, who aimed to draw attention to the limited affect that the Monetary Policy Committee's conclusion will actually have on borrowers.

As well as emphasising that holders of existing fixed rate mortgage deals are unaffected by the Bank's decisions, he also claimed newly available products had eased the market situation.

"The majority of mortgage customers have a fixed rate mortgage and, therefore, any change in rate would have had no impact," he explained.

"New borrowers, and those re-mortgaging, are already benefiting from cheaper fixed rate mortgage products as swap rates, which are currently around 0.55 per cent lower than this time last year, have already factored in potential decreases in base rate."

The Leeds Building Society yesterday launched a new range of fixed term mortgages, including two, three, five and ten year products.

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