A limited offer for low-rate home loans is unlikely to break the deadlock in the mortgage market, say brokers. Financial Times
HSBC has announced it is extending its offer to match homeowners’ existing mortgage deals, some as low as 4.54%, for a further six weeks.
The move has been made as the rest of the mortgage market continues to raise interest rates and impose restrictions on deals. Brokers say HSBC’s offer is unlikely to be enough to encourage other lenders to start cutting rates.
However, mortgage analysts say lenders are at risk of losing their most valuable creditworthy borrowers to the bank unless they can match its offer. HSBC is the UK’s largest bank but has only a 3% share of the mortgage market.
The bank said that since it began its offer, initially intended to run for five weeks, mortgage sales had risen four times above normal and now averaged more than £100m daily.
