Urgent warning for homeowners as mortgage rates hit 6% and Rishi Sunak refuses calls for government help
PM Rishi Sunak rebuffed calls for the Government to bail out homeowners as mortgage rates shot above six per cent yesterday.
The average rate on a two-year fixed deal has now soared to 6.01 per cent, Moneyfacts said.
And a typical five-year fixed deal is 5.67 per cent.
This leaves many households facing monthly payments more than 50 per cent higher than in 2021.
TSB announced it was withdrawing a raft of mortgage products ahead of the publication of the latest inflation figures today.
But despite fears people could fall into mortgage arrears or face negative equity if house prices slump, the PM said there would be no extra help.
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Mr Sunak believes a Covid-style intervention could only make inflation worse in the long-run.
He told ITV: “I know the anxiety people will have about mortgage rates.
“That is why the first priority I set out at the beginning of the year was to halve inflation, because that is the best way we can keep costs and interest rates down.”
Mortgage rates have climbed back up to the levels briefly seen during then-PM Liz Truss’s mini Budget mayhem because the Bank of England is expected to raise its base rate to 4.75 per cent on Thursday.
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The interest paid out to investors in two-year UK government bonds has also risen to five per cent, the highest level since the 2008 financial crash.
Experts now predict the Bank rate could jump as high as 5.75 per cent next year, which could translate to mortgage rates of 8.77 per cent.
Homeowners who have to remortgage this year will have to find an extra £250 a month for a £100,000 loan at a time when many are struggling to afford rocketing food bills.
Experts warn the shock to incomes will be worse than in the 1980s, when mortgage rates were at 15 per cent, because the jump has been bigger and much more sudden.
The news comes as figures from Rightmove show house prices have dropped for the first time since 2017.