The past few months have seen an increase in the demand on remortgages and economists forecast the demand will remain high into 2011. The inflation increase has pushed many to secure a remortgage before the 0.5% standard base rate rises. However, even with a rate change, which most agree will not be drastic, there will be good deals to be had and as homeowners become ready it is believed they will move to a remortgage versus waiting to see if there will be a more attractive deal in the future. It appears that the time to react is now and most are following suit of those that have already grabbed substantial savings in interest costs in their mortgage payments.

Recently there has been much talk over the best fixed rate deals being pulled from the table by lenders. However, there are still good deals to be found and savings to be realized by those shopping and looking at what is still a possible savings in interest costs versus concentrating on what is no longer available. The deals from weeks past may no longer be available, but there are deals that still amount to much savings and sound financial consideration when compared to the current mortgage many homeowners possess.

Data released by Legal & General’s quarterly adviser confidence index shows 85% of advisers expect their business volumes will be at least the same or greater in 2011. When polled about remortgage and purchase business in the coming year, 21% expect to do 30% remortgage business compared to 70% purchase business, followed by 20% expecting 10% remortgage business and 90% purchase business.

When polled on whether the base rate will change in 2011 an overwhelming 96 per cent predicted it would not change while 4 per cent predicted the new rate to reach 0.75 per cent, a 0.25 per cent rise.

Stephen Smith, director of housing and external affairs at L&G Network, says: "The start of New Year brings a wave of optimism for advisers, with 85% saying that their business volumes will be at least the same or greater than the last three months and a minority, only 15% saying that volumes will fall."

He adds: "So with a thaw in the icy condition which gripped the country before Christmas, perhaps the business outlook for mortgage intermediaries is warming up too."