Boris Johnson Is Messing With My Mortgage
Should I fix or should I float? That depends on Brexit.
What could possibly go wrong?
Photographer: Neil Hall/EPABritain is scheduled to leave the European Union in 100 days. Boris Johnson says he will meet the Oct. 31 deadline even if that means exiting without an agreement. And my mortgage deal is about to expire, meaning I have to renegotiate my house loan. So how should I navigate the biggest political and economic crisis facing Britain and its likely effect on borrowing costs in coming years?
A decade ago, the U.K. mortgage market was split roughly evenly between borrowers who paid fixed rates and those whose payments varied as the Bank of England moved its own base rate. Now, more than 90% of new loans are fixed-rate as borrowers increasingly opt for the certainty of knowing in advance how much they will have to pay each month.