What's the average mortgage rate?

There is a variety of economic factors that can affect your mortgage rate and mortgage rates that are available in general. These factors will influence the headline mortgage interest rate that you see advertised. Keeping an eye out for these in newspapers and magazines can give you an idea of whether the rates are likely to go up or down in the near future.

1) The competitiveness within the mortgage market. Mortgage lenders want your business, so if their competitors are offering better rates, they are likely to lower rates to lure customers to them instead.

2) The Bank of England’s base rate. This is the cost of money set out by the state.

3) The number of repossessions. This is a key indicator and can signal how risky it is to lend money, the riskier it is, the higher the rate.

4) Unemployment rates. This factor is also taken into consideration and used to measure the riskiness of lending money for mortgages.