Average pricing of two and three-year fixed rates is at an all-time low at 2.92% and 3.76% respectively, according to an index.
Mortgages for Business said this is great news for landlords who favour shorter-term products, but those wishing to lock into record low rates for the longer term must act quickly.
However, five-year fixed rates crept up for the second month in a row to 3.77%, exceeding the average price of three-year fixed rates for the first time since January 2015, according to its buy to let product index.
CEO of Mortgages for Business, David Whittaker explained that longer-term swaps have risen in recent months, so it’s no surprise that pricing for five-year fixed rates have started to creep up.
“However, when looking at the bigger picture, these rates are still, on average, less than 1% more than their shorter-term counterparts. As such, we continue to recommend them to customers as they not only provide a longer period of security against rate rises in an uncertain market, they can also save landlords the time and money it costs in remortgaging more often.”
He added that landlords might consider having a few properties on five-year fixes to ‘spread risk.’
The index also found that January was a good month for short-term tracker products, with two-year buy-to-let tracker rates again at an average of just 2.81%.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.