Scottish First Time Buyers Paying Less Mortgage Interest
First time buyers in Scotland are paying less in mortgage interest compared with anywhere else in the UK, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders in Scotland. Scots are keeping their mortgage interest to a minimum and only shelling out around 11% of their income on the cost of buying a mortgage. Instead of saving money through a remortgage, they are benefitting by cutting their cost on the interest side of a loan.
Mark Dyason of independent mortgage broker, Edinburgh Mortgage Advice, commented on the different mind-set this generation is putting into practice, saying: "First time buyers are not only being supported by lower house prices but, more fundamentally, are not over-stretching themselves. In the current economic climate, the new generation is being as cautious as the old, which is no bad thing.
"The final quarter of 2011 may have been flat but the Scottish mortgage market has seen a boost since the New Year due to the stamp duty holiday. Were this holiday not coming to an end, I would expect the market to be much flatter.
"The growth in the number of remortgages over 2011 has been down to some of the exceptionally competitive fixed and tracker rates that have come onto the market. They have tempted people off their SVRs.
"We are already seeing rates tick upwards, in no small part due to the ongoing problems in the Eurozone. Lenders are becoming more nervous by the day and this is feeding through into mortgage rates.”