Nationwide Urges Mortgage Borrowers to Act Quickly

In its latest statement, one of the leading British building societies – Nationwide – reminded its potential borrowers and mortgage brokers that the deadline of the Stamp Duty Holiday is approaching, which means that those who still wish to benefit from this tax break should apply for a mortgage shortly. Let us remind that the British government increased the stamp duty threshold to £175,000, up from £125,000, last September; the stamp duty tax holiday will, however, end on the last day of this year, December 31st unless the UK government extends it, which it might do this month. Nationwide sent a note to its partner mortgage-brokers, which said that those mortgage brokers, who wish to get their clients a discount on the stamp duty holiday need to do all the application paperwork soon as there are only 42 working days left until the stamp duty holidays ends. Nationwide also reminded its potential customers and current mortgage brokers that processing of a mortgage application by the building society takes 39 days, on average. Last week Nationwide published its latest monthly overview of the UK house prices, which revealed a 0.4% increase in house prices across Great Britain; at the same time, the building society introduced a number of attractive deals for new customers with small deposits. For instance, borrowers with 10% deposits can now take advantage of a 2-year fixed mortgage deal offered at 5.98% if they open a Flex current account with Nationwide. In the opinion of Trinity Financial Group’s broker, Mr. Aaron Strutt, the fact that Nationwide offers competitive deals to new customers with deposits of less than 15% is a good sign as previously the building society only focused on existing borrowers. Mr. Strutt is determined that the confidence in the UK housing and mortgage markets is returning. Mr. Martin Gahbauer, chief economist at Nationwide, however, said that the “mini-boom”, as he put it, showed signs of moderation.