Tracker mortgages – where are they?

The number of mortgages available continues to fall with tracker mortgages hardest hit – where are they and what about the ‘green shoots’ of recovery in the housing market?

Information from moneysupermarket.com shows that the number of tracker mortgages has fallen by 81% in a year.

Even fixed rate mortgages though have fallen by 46%.

One year tracker mortgages have been hardest hit with only 2 available at the start of this week, compared with over 500 in July last year.

Many companies offering tracker mortgages were hit hard as the Bank of England base rate fell to historically low levels.

As Louise Cumming of moneysupermarket.com comments ‘The decision between a tracker and a fixed rate is always somewhat of a gamble, and whilst some people like the certainty a fixed rate mortgage affords, the savings on offer from tracker mortgages are hard to ignore.

Almost everyone agrees that the Base Rate must eventually rise, but no one knows quite when this will happen, and if rates remain flat for another six months or so, those opting for tracker may save hundreds of pounds.’

There are still tracker mortgages to be found, with more available for 2 and 3 year deals.

One option might to be consider an offset tracker mortgage, as for example recently launched by first direct.

This offers a tracker mortgage with the added security of a capped interest rate so you know your tracker mortgage won’t rise above an agreed level during the period.