The demand for remortgage lending remains weak despite the fact that there are many attractive deals currently available.  The reasons could be anything from the fact that those that could remortgage have already done so to the fact that there are simply many homeowners unaware that a remortgage could be helpful to them.  However, there is also the chance that homeowners have grown weary with the economy and have lost the fight to figure out the right path they should take.

At one point it was pretty clear that a remortgage was needed for despite the historically low interest rate of the Bank there were threats that interest rates could be going upward.  The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee never raised their rates and economists down played any warnings but lenders were free to do as they needed and changes occurred.  The global lending market became tight and as the cost for funding their lending became more expensive the cost was shared with customers.  Lenders began to push their interest rates upward on offerings and they also raised the rates on their standard variable rates (SVR). 

The SVR is the rate that homeowners convert to when they do not remortgage at the end of their current mortgage deal.  When SVRs were increasing it was thought that homeowners would run out to remortgage and escape the rising interest rates but the demand did not increase as expected.

Now with lenders having lowered their offerings and extend their fixed rate deals to longer terms at cheaper remortgage interest rates it still is uncertain as to why the remortgage lending levels have not dramatically increased.  Homeowners could be weary of the news and tight lending criteria and have decided to ride out the storm they are presently within in hopes of emerging fairly intact despite the ups and downs of interest rate costs.